President John Dramani Mahama has called on the United Kingdom to seize the moment and build strong partnerships for growth, as global disturbances continue to shake economies around the world.
He says the Commonwealth must move beyond talk and turn its ties into real cooperation that delivers jobs, trade and resilience for developing countries.
He has also praised the UK for shifting its position on reparations, and urged Prime Minister Andy Burnham to stand with African countries to achieve the full promise of reparatory justice.
Speaking at a bilateral meeting with British Prime Minister Andy Burnham on the sidelines of the ongoing Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in St. John’s, Antigua and Barbuda, on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, President Mahama said Britain has shifted some of its very strong positions and is now more open to engaging with the rest of the world and the Commonwealth.
He said the Prime Minister’s approach “creates a first step for us to continue to work to see how we can put this whole issue of transatlantic slave trade and colonialism behind us.”
President Mahama, who leads the African Union’s work on reparations, described the UK’s new openness as an honest break with the past.
“As African Union Champion on Reparations and Chair of the Global Advisory Panel on Reparatory Justice, I commend the statement for its bold, reflective, conciliatory, and honest reckoning with the UK’s legacy of slavery and colonialism,” he said.
He said recognition alone is not enough, but it matters because it opens the door to healing:
“While an acknowledgement of the atrocities and a formal apology for the grave mistreatment of the millions affected cannot undo the profound injustices of the past, they signal a crucial departure from past denial and open the path toward genuine healing and repair,” he said.
He added that Ghana is not walking this path alone: “Ghana aligns itself fully with our brothers and sisters in all AU Member States. It stands in firm and complete solidarity with the Government and people of the wider CARICOM community. We also remain in steadfast solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the Americas,” he said.
Prime Minister Burnham, for his part, said the UK wants to work closely with Ghana to get the issue right.
He has indicated that he is open to a formal apology for the slave trade and to structured talks with Caribbean and African partners on how such an apology could happen.
He has, however, ruled out financial compensation, and is instead pushing a debt reset to ease repayments for struggling Commonwealth countries.
President Mahama said any serious dialogue must therefore go beyond an apology. It must tackle racism and Afrophobia, drive investment in education, science, youth, climate resilience and healthcare, return stolen cultural heritage, and build development partnerships that address structural poverty.
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