Jul 07-2026

The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Honourable Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, led a delegation comprising Hon. Joana Gyan, Member of Parliament for Amenfi Central and Ben Chester Ati, Aide to the Secretary General to participate in the Group of Socialist and Democrats (S&D) Africa Days event held from 30th June to 1st July, 2026 at the European Parliament in Brussels.

The S&D Group is the largest centre-left political group in the European Parliament, advocating for an inclusive European society grounded in freedom, equality, solidarity, diversity and fairness. Their MEPs focus on social justice, jobs, consumer rights, sustainable development, financial market reform and human rights to enhance democracy in Europe. Currently, the S&D Group aims to tackle unemployment and promote fairness in society and markets, seeking to restore trust in the EU and inspire hope for the future.

The S&D Africa Days initiative is based on a key political priority of the S&D Group of the European Parliament: advancing a renewed, forward-looking partnership of equals between Europe and Africa, based on equality, solidarity, social justice and shared progress. The event brought together African leaders, EU policy makers and development partners to discuss financing, trade infrastructure and partnerships for Africa’s growth.

Hon. Fifi Kwetey participated as one of the key speakers in the opening and closing sessions of the event, as well as a panelist during a discussion on the topic “Economic and social empowerment in African transformations.” During the opening session, the General Secretary called for a renewed partnership and stated that Africa has enormous potential to chart a future in light of Africa's young population.

During the panel discussion, the General Secretary, with reference to the statement of the 1st President of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, which suggested Africa had to face neither west nor east but forward, admonished Members of the European Parliament, the diaspora and diplomats present at the event to encourage Africa to generate African solutions for development. He stated that the solution to Africa’s problems would come from within and that, when Africa was able to build on its own solutions, Europe could play its role as a key partner in supporting those solutions.

Hon. Gyan participated in a networking lunch that delved deeply into EU-Africa relations in the context of Africa's needs and the EU's quest to maintain its economic competitiveness with global superpowers. During her submission, Hon. Gyan intimated that Africa was open to partnering with China and Europe, provided Africa was ready to take calculated risks with support from its partners. In her view, the key to financing Africa’s infrastructure gap was not to avoid risk when it came to concessional loans, but to manage them to negotiate transparent terms, tie loans to projects with clear economic returns and ensure technology transfer and local participation.