President John Dramani Mahama has left Accra for New York to attend the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, where he is expected to host two high-level side events.
The Presidency announced the trip in a statement issued on September 19, 2026, and signed by the Spokesperson to the President and Minister for Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu.
The two events extend campaigns President Mahama has pursued through the past year, one on rebuilding the global development system and the other on reparations and the return of looted cultural property.
Alongside them, he will deliver Ghana’s national statement, meet the UN Secretary-General and multinational executives, and make a direct pitch for investment on the floor of a New York exchange.
Two Side Events, Two Campaigns
The first comes on Monday, 21 September, when the President hosts a High-Level Event on the Accra Reset convening world leaders under the title “Full Circle: Making Global Development Work Again.”
That event returns to a framework President Mahama launched at last year’s assembly, when he introduced the Accra Reset as a response to what he described as a fraying development architecture.
The initiative argues that aid and loans have produced dependency, and that development cooperation should instead be country-led and anchored in trade and investment.
It has since acquired institutional form. An interim secretariat for the initiative was announced in Accra at the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg, and its Circle of Leaders has grown to include more than two dozen former heads of state and leaders of international organisations drawn from Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe and the Caribbean.
The title of this year’s event signals a progress report rather than a launch, which raises the question of what the initiative can now show for a year of convening.
Reparatory Justice And The Return Of Cultural Property
The second side event falls on Wednesday, 23 September, and addresses “From Commitments to Action on Reparatory Justice: Advancing International Cooperation for the Return and Restitution of Cultural Properties and Heritage.”
The framing places restitution at the centre of the reparations conversation, moving from declarations to the mechanics of returning objects held in foreign museums and private collections.
President Mahama carries a continental mandate on the subject as African Union Champion for Reparations, which gives Ghana a platform on an issue where progress has generally come through bilateral negotiation rather than multilateral agreement.
Ghana’s Statement To The General Debate
President Mahama will deliver Ghana’s official statement during the main General Debate on Thursday, 24 September. This year’s assembly meets under the theme “Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation: A United Nations that Delivers for All.”
That theme sits closely with the argument the Accra Reset makes about institutional credibility, giving the President a natural bridge between his side event and the podium.
NASDAQ Bell And The Investment Pitch
A substantial part of the programme is commercial. The President will ring the NASDAQ Closing Bell and meet business leaders at a United States and Ghana Presidential Roundtable organised by the US-Africa Chamber of Commerce, both intended to position the country as a destination for investment.
He will also speak at the Council on Foreign Relations and attend the Ocean Panel Leaders’ Meeting, while holding meetings aimed at strengthening partnerships, encouraging investment and engaging the diaspora. His schedule includes engagements with world leaders, the UN Secretary-General and senior executives from multinational companies.
The sequencing is deliberate. A government arguing that development should run through trade and investment rather than aid has an obvious interest in being seen closing deals rather than requesting support.
Town Hall With The Diaspora
On Friday, 25 September, President Mahama will host a town hall meeting with the Ghanaian community in New York to share updates on his vision for national development.
Accompanying him are the First Lady, Lordina Dramani Mahama, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, other cabinet ministers and senior officials from the Presidency.
The scale of that delegation is itself notable at a moment when the cost of government travel and overseas operations is under parliamentary scrutiny at home, and the Presidency has not published a cost estimate for the trip.
What the week ultimately delivers will be measured against the ambition of the two side events. A framework with a secretariat, a circle of former heads of state and a second assembly appearance now needs commitments that can be tracked, and the restitution agenda needs a mechanism rather than another declaration. Both tests will outlast the week in New York.
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