Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has told a gathering of students, academics and the business community at Harvard university during the African Development Conference at the Harvard Law School that Africa can only develop and realise its full potential by breaking the shackles of impossibility mindset and embrace the mindset of possibility.

“The truth is that we have for long been shackled by an impossibility mindset that is probably the result of the experience of years of slavery and colonialism. We don't believe in ourselves,” Dr Bawumia stated.

He charged that African countries can do what the advanced countries have done and more, adding, “It is possible.”

Dr Bawumia was speaking on the theme: Reimagining Africa's growth on our terms.

He further indicated that at the heart of this vision of reimagining Africa’s growth is the transformative power of technology.

In his view, the greatest bane to the development of Africa is the continent’s inability to solve the basic problems of the absence of unique identity for its population, functioning property address systems, financial inclusion, payment systems, efficient public service delivery among others that underpin the continent’s economic activities.

For many years after independence, he said Africa has been trying to transform its economies without data and transparent systems. Without data and systems, he said, African countries cannot participate in the fourth Industrial Revolution.