Africans, according to Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, have long been stuck in an aura of impossibility.
This, he said, was probably the result of the experience of years of slavery and colonialism.
“We don’t believe in ourselves. However, for us to realize our full potential and set ourselves apart, we need to break the shackles of impossibility mindset and embrace the mindset of possibility.
“African countries can do what the Advanced countries have done and more. It is possible,” he said on Saturday April 15 while speaking as the guest speaker at a gathering of students, academics and the business community at Harvard university during the African Development Conference at the Harvard Law School on the theme “reimagining Africa’s growth on our terms.”
He indicated that at the heart of this vision is the transformative power of technology.
“In my view, the greatest bane to the development of Africa is our inability to solve the basic problems of the absence of unique identity for our population, functioning property address systems, financial inclusion, payment systems, efficient public service delivery, etc. that underpin our economic activities.
“For many years after independence we have been trying to transform our economies without data and transparent systems. Without data and systems African countries cannot participate in the fourth Industrial Revolution,” he said.