By Angela Moonga
Visiting Ghanaian President John Mahama has wished President Hakainde Hichilema good luck in the August 2026 general elections, and that he’ll come back to celebrate with him.
Speaking during a bilateral meeting at State House yesterday, President Mahama said he hoped the visit would rekindle the spirit between the two countries to achieve economic transformation.
He in turn extended an invitation to President Hichilema to visit Ghana while he was still President.
”I know you are going to be busy between now and the elections. But I wish you good luck in the elections, and we’ll come back to celebrate with you,” he said.
President Mahama said the barriers created by the Berlin conference, where some European countries partitioned Africa for their own interests, had made the continent not to develop at the optimal speed, and therefore the need to forge stronger bilateral ties.
He said Ghana and Zambia seemed to be moving in the same trajectory where they had been dealing with economic challenges, saying they both went into debt restructuring and debt negotiations with the official creditors committee and were implementing fiscal reforms.
President Mahama highlighted the need for cooperation to identify products they could exchange.
He urged enhanced economic cooperation beyond political dialogue and joint permanent commission.
And President Hichilema said the two leaders were continuing on the trajectory set by the great pan-African leaders Dr Kenneth Kaunda and Kwame Nkrumah.
He stressed that the economic agenda was now more pronounced as the same would feed into other aspects of the two countries relationships.
President Hichilema said the problem with Africans was that they talked without fulfilling, but the two presidents now wanted to get things done.
He said they were also working together under the auspices of the African Union to reform the global financial architecture that gave Africa a high cost on capital.
He called on the Ghanaian delegation to come to Zambia for tourist visits than going to Europe, while encouraging Zambians to also visit Ghana.
