I welcomed my brother, President Carlos Manuel Vila Nova of São Tomé, to Accra for the 2026 Africa Trade Summit. The summit provided a platform to reiterate the urgent need for African governments to embrace reforms that directly impact development and guarantee the safety and well-being of our people. It is obvious that political freedom without economic transformation is incomplete. Industrialisation we know is capital-intensive. Yet access to long-term affordable finance remains constrained, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises that employ the majority of Africa's industrial workforce. We must begin to re-channel pension funds, insurance, and sovereign wealth funds, which manage hundreds of billions of dollars into other productive ventures with the right instruments, such as industrial bonds, infrastructure funds, and diaspora financing.(John Dramani Mahama)