Africa Must Share Knowledge and Skills to Drive Development – Dr Nii Moi Thompson

Dr Nii Moi Thompson, Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), has urged African countries to strengthen the sharing of knowledge, skills and development experiences among themselves to reduce dependence on external institutions and accelerate the continent’s development,

He said African countries could achieve greater progress if they pooled their technical expertise, historical knowledge and human resources to address common development challenges.

Dr Thompson made the call when he represented the Chief of Staff at the closing ceremony of the HR Café 2026 held in Accra on Friday, where he participated in a panel discussion moderated by Mr Akwasi Sarpong.

Speaking on the role of human resources in advancing the Pan-African vision, Dr Thompson said Africa had considerable human capital both on the continent and in the diaspora, which could be harnessed to support development.

He said the sharing of knowledge among African countries would also strengthen their ability to engage external institutions and respond to policies that affected their economies.

Dr Thompson observed that African countries often engaged international institutions individually, citing the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as an example.

He said Ghana, Kenya, Zambia and other African countries generally negotiated with such institutions separately, despite facing similar development challenges.

According to him, greater cooperation and exchange of knowledge among African countries would provide them with a stronger basis for engaging external institutions.

He said African countries needed to learn from the manner in which developed countries coordinated their interests, particularly in areas such as economic policy and international finance.

Dr Thompson also called for greater attention to education as part of human resource development, saying technical skills alone were not enough to drive Africa’s transformation.

He said education must also develop the intellectual capacity of Africans to understand their history, assess external influences and contribute meaningfully to the development of their countries.

He noted that Africa needed both technical and intellectual knowledge, as well as soft and hard skills, to build a human resource base capable of advancing the continent’s development.

Dr Thompson said the historical relationship between the diaspora and Africa provided a basis for strengthening collaboration between Africans at home and abroad.

He urged African countries to deepen cooperation and share experiences rather than continue to operate separately.

He said stronger collaboration would help African countries build the capacity to shape their own development and improve their ability to respond to external economic and political pressures.

A representative of the Chief of Staff of Burkina Faso, Wendpanga Alexis, noted that Burkina Faso is working to reduce its dependence on foreign consultants and technical experts by mobilising the knowledge and skills of its citizens at home and in the diaspora

He said greater use of national expertise would enable the country to build local capacity and take stronger control of its development processes.

He called for efforts to develop the capacity of Africans to use their own knowledge and expertise to address development challenges.

Joyce Adwoa Animia Ocran, ISD