Ghanaian President Nana Akufo Addo will meet Wednesday with Chancellor Angela Merkel in Germany, where he is finishing up a 10-day tour that also took him to Togo and the United States.

The two are expected to discuss bilateral relations with an emphasis on economic partnership. Ghana is one of three African nations, along with Côte d’Ivoire and Tunisia, that partners with Germany as part of the G20 Compact with Africa championed by Merkel last year. It is designed to boost investment in Africa by deepening relationships between specific African nations and their G20 counterparts, through commitments to improve the investment climate at home and opportunities to seek investment abroad.

To that end, Akufo Addo also addressed a German-African Economic Forum in Dortmund, stressing the need to create economic opportunity for African youth and stem the tragic tide of migrants seeking Europe’s shores on perilous journeys across the Sahara and Mediterranean Sea.

“Africa needs to transform stagnant, jobless economies, built on the export of raw materials and unrefined goods, to value-added economies that provide jobs, to build strong middle-class societies and lift the masses of our people out of dire poverty,” he said. “We can only do so if we participate in the global market place on the basis not of the exports of raw materials, but on the basis of things we make.”

Akufo Addo encouraged German-African trade and investment, particularly in energy and infrastructure, with an emphasis on the continent’s growing population and the opportunity that comes with it.

“We have a responsibility to make our countries attractive to our young people,” he said. “They should feel they have a worthwhile future, if they stay and help build their nations.”

Image: Presidency of Ghana