Africa-Europe ties must move beyond aid – German Ambassador

The German Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Frederik Landscoft, has called for an end to the traditional donor-recipient relationship between Europe and Africa, urging both sides to build a new partnership based on mutual interests, shared strengths and joint value creation.

He said the next chapter of relations between Europe and Africa must be founded on equality, with both sides identifying what they could offer each other rather than allowing their relations to be defined principally by aid.

“The next chapter must be different. Partners who formulate their own interests and recognise what each has to offer. Partners who learn from each other, partners who create value together,” he said.

Mr Landscoft was speaking at a reception at his residence in Accra on Wednesday to commemorate German Unity Day.

He said the historical relationship between Europe and Africa had for too long been shaped by profound inequalities, noting that colonialism had been followed by an economic model in which raw materials left Africa while much of the value was created elsewhere.

Relations, he added, were also often framed in terms of donors and recipients.

“That cannot be the partnership of the future,” he said.

Mr Landscoft said Germany wanted to see a relationship in which investment, skills, technology, financing and trade reinforced one another over the long term.

He said Ghana and Germany were well placed to develop such a partnership because both were middle powers and democracies committed to international cooperation and a rules-based international order.

He said Ghana had much to offer Germany, just as Germany had much to offer Ghana, adding that the task was to bring those strengths together.

He cited textile and pharmaceutical cooperation as examples of the partnership Germany wanted to promote, where Ghanaian enterprise and resources could be combined with German technology, expertise and financing to create jobs and retain more value locally.

Mr Landscoft also stressed the importance of vocational skills, saying Germany’s ageing population and Ghana’s youthful population created complementary interests.

“Talent does not wear only white collars. Excellence does not live only in lecture halls,” he said.

He said German public and private institutions were already working with Ghanaian partners to strengthen vocational training, while efforts were also being made to expand opportunities for learning the German language.

On migration, Mr Landscoft said mobility should be structured to create opportunities in both countries rather than simply facilitate the movement of skilled workers out of Ghana.

“Mobility should not trade opportunity. It should multiply it,” he said.

The Minister of Defence, Mr Kenneth Gilbert Adjei, who was the special guest of honour, said Ghana was pursuing industrialisation, job creation and stronger local productive capacity and, therefore, valued growing interest from German companies and institutions in investment, technology transfer and skills development.

He said cooperation in the textile and pharmaceutical sectors demonstrated the practical benefits of combining Ghanaian enterprise and local resources with German technology, expertise and investment.

Such partnerships, he said, contributed to industrial development, job creation, skills development and stronger local value chains.

Mr Adjei also highlighted cooperation in technical and vocational education and training (TVET), saying Ghana needed to equip its young people with practical skills responsive to the changing needs of the economy.

On climate change, he said Ghana appreciated Germany’s continued cooperation in building resilience, particularly among vulnerable communities.

Mr Adjei said Ghana also welcomed continued German engagement on the countries’ shared history and cultural heritage, including dialogue on cultural objects from the colonial period.

He said Ghana looked forward to the German-African Business Summit in Accra as an important platform for strengthening trade, investment and business partnerships.

As Ghana and Germany prepare to celebrate 70 years of diplomatic relations in 2027, Mr Adjei said the two countries must build on their longstanding friendship by translating trust and goodwill into concrete action and tangible outcomes for their people.

BY CLIFF EKUFUL

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