‘We have everything in abundance in Africa, we have no excuse’ – McDan

Dr. Daniel McCauley, the Executive Director and Founder of the McDan Group, has urged Africa to abandon its abundant resources and untapped potential to achieve significant development. Speaking during a panel discussion on "People, Skills & Services: Building the Human Engine of the Reset" at the Ghana CEO High-Level Dialogue, he emphasized that Africa's youthful population, technological progress, and access to global information present great opportunities for the continent to speed up its development.

However, Dr. McCauley stressed that these advantages must be complemented by a shift in how people perceive development and tackle the continent's challenges.

He stressed that the reset agenda is fundamentally a mindset issue. Once people change their perception of development, they will begin solving the reset's problems. Drawing on the African philosophy of Sankofa, Dr. McCauley urged stakeholders to learn from past experiences without allowing the past to impede progress. He explained that the Sankofa bird flies forward but looks back.

This does not mean going backward; it signifies not abandoning what has been learned along the way. He stressed the importance of collaboration, rebuffing the notion that relying on others equates to weakness.

Dr. McCauley highlighted that developments in other parts of the world can now be accessed almost immediately in Africa, bringing the continent closer to advanced economies and expanding opportunities for progress. He noted that technology has brought the continent closer to advanced nations than ever before, adding that any event happening in the U.S. can be known instantly in Africa.

He called for a shift from the raw state to an advanced state of development, emphasizing that this transformation must begin with a change in mindset.