Mr. Alan Kyeremanten, Ghana's Ambassador to the United States has said the time had far passed for Africa to rescue itself from its many troubles and stop blaming colonialism and its agents. According to a statement issued on Friday, Mr. Kyeremanten said this in an interview in Washington DC to celebrate African Liberation Day, which falls on 25 May on World Net's Africa Journal TV programme.

"Colonialism did happen and Africans cannot forget as well as the effects the Cold War had on them as an emerging post-colonial state and also the military interventions and counter-coups but it is time to focus on current problems" he said.

Mr. Kyeremanten said over 300 billion dollars of aid money given to African countries for development purposes by multinational and bilateral institutions are secretly being kept in European Banks for some leaders. "Colonialism still gets blame forty years after most African countries became independent, he added.

Mr. Kyeremanten argued that in the new spirit that may be created from the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), Africa would have no choice but to consolidate and unite with a strong political will to achieve its aims. NEPAD, he said, was still at its consolidating stage and that a continent that has a debt excess of 500 billion dollars and uses over 40 per cent of its foreign revenue earnings to service its debts has a real problem.

Mr. Kyeremanten also made it known that Africa would need to acquaint itself to the Asian experience in terms of market accessibility as one of the important ways of development.