Mahama to host ‘Addis Reckoning’ ahead of AU summit

President John Dramani Mahama will host an Accra Reset side event in Addis Ababa on Saturday ahead of the AU Assembly.

The event, dubbed “Addis Reckoning,” is scheduled to take place before the official opening of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union. It was announced in a post on the Presidency’s X account on Friday.

According to the statement, the side event “will bring together a number of continental leaders and Chief Executives of private businesses and multilateral organisations” to deliberate on Africa’s strategic future.

Key among the issues for discussion is “a new framework for free movement and talent circulation in Africa backed by a digital passport.” The Presidency said conversations will also focus on technological innovations to extract more value from Africa’s minerals, reform of global health governance and institutions, and partnerships between African countries and global south pacesetters on harnessing artificial intelligence.

President Mahama will be joined by other leaders serving on the Accra Reset Presidential Council, described as “key champions of the sovereign prosperity spheres concept.”

The initiative builds on Mahama’s longstanding advocacy for deeper African integration and structural reform. Addressing global leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, he urged the continent to take charge of shaping an emerging global order.

“Our world as we know it is at an inflection point,” Mahama said at the forum. “Africa intends to be at the table in determining what the new global order will look like.”

He warned that dependence on external security decisions, donor-funded systems and raw material exports had created what he described as a “triple dependency,” stressing,

“This isn’t sovereignty. It’s a trap.”

Mahama has consistently argued that Africa must move beyond rhetoric to coordinated execution.

“Ghana’s success alone is not enough. We must knit together the patchwork of success stories across Africa,” he said in Davos, positioning the Accra Reset Initiative as a practical blueprint for collective prosperity.

Saturday’s Addis Reckoning is expected to further articulate that vision, focusing on digital integration and coordinated negotiation as pillars of Africa’s next development phase.