UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, received a loud applause Monday when he quoted a popular Akan proverb to drive home his point that the UK remains the choice of trade for Africa.
Addressing African heads of states at the UK-Africa Summit 2020, the Prime Minister sought to woo African leaders for post-Brexit trade with Africa.
According to him, Britain should be the “investment partner of choice” for Africa.
Quoting the popular Akan saying: ‘Nsa tia nyinaa nnyԑ pԑ’ to wit ‘all fingers are not the same’, the UK Prime Minister said: “The UK boasts a breadth and depth of expertise that simply cannot be matched by any other nation.”
“In the words of an old Akan proverb that I picked up in Ghana, ‘all fingers are not the same’. There’s wisdom in these Akan proverbs; all fingers are not the same and all countries are not the same,” he stated to the admiration of the gathered.
The summit came less than two weeks before the UK is due to formally leave the European Union (EU), with Johnson hoping to convince African leaders and company executives to make Britain their “investment partner of choice,” while painting Brexit as a “new start” for the UK and trade with other nations.
The 16 leaders from 21 African countries in attendance included Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo.
The summit followed up on a sub-Saharan Africa tour by former Prime Minister Theresa May in 2018 — the first of its kind by a UK leader in five years.