Ghanas former President John Mahama has been made the chair of the 7th TANA High-Level Forum on Africa security.

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The forum is backed by the Ethiopian government as an African-owned initiative to explore solutions by Africans for the continent’s security challenges.

On Friday, ex-president Mahama spoke on 'Self-Reliance in Africa's Peace and Security' at a public lecture at the Bahir Dar University as part of the 7th TANA High-Level Forum on Security in Africa.

He stressed that academic institutions and not-for-profit organizations as a whole should :contribute towards the realization of self-reliance both in terms of clarity of ideas and concreteness of  policies.”

He added: “It goes without saying that the purpose of academic institutions is research, teaching,  and rendering services to the community.  As hubs of research and innovation, academic institutions must contribute to the attainment of self-reliance by refining and concretize the notion and relevance of self-reliance itself in the areas of peace, security, and governance."

“The greatest threat to Africa’s peace and security is the rapid rate of population growth.

“This should be of serious concern, considering that the population of Africa is growing faster than all the other continents. It is estimated that nearly 60% of the world’s growth will occur on our continent by the year 2050.

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"Africa’s unbridled population growth is likened to a slowing train, it will cover some distance before it finally comes to a stop. While fertility rates and birth rates are falling in many countries, it will take a while before Africa’s population growth is brought under control.”