Liberian leader to Obama: Africa needs investment

By Lesley Wroughton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Liberian leader Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf hopes President Barack Obama will underscore during his visit to Ghana this weekend that the United States cares about Africa and wants to be part of its development through increased trade and investment.

In an interview on Thursday, Johnson-Sirleaf told Reuters the message from Obama, the first U.S. black president, would be important as a global financial crisis and recession threaten to undermine a decade of economic progress in Africa and concerns rise that donors will not deliver on their aid promises.

"We hope he is coming to give a message to Africa that the U.S. cares about Africa and its development, it is prepared to be a strong partner to Africa and is prepared to compete with others for this partnership," Johnson-Sirleaf said by telephone from Liberia's capital, Monrovia.

She said while Ghana was the only African country Obama would visit, it was an example of a country that had prospered through good economic policies, more transparency and the successful transfer of political power through the ballot box.

But like elsewhere in Africa, its economy has been crippled by falling revenue as global trade has collapsed, just when countries were growing at more than 6 percent annually, enough to make a dent in poverty levels.

For Liberia, founded in the 19th century by freed black slaves from America, the crisis has come as the country rebuilds after years of conflict that ended in elections in 2005 when Johnson-Sirleaf became Africa's first female president and vowed to fight corruption.

"There is a major transformation that is going on in Africa and I hope Obama in Ghana will see a very clear example of that," she said.

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