Akufo-Addo grants govt approval for visa-free journey to Ghana for All Africans
President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has fulfilled a promise made final January to worldwide members, primarily enterprise executives, on the Africa Prosperity Dialogues 2024. His promise was to permit visa-free journey to Ghana for residents of all different African nations earlier than his time period of workplace expired on January 6, 2025.
This will likely be a serious increase for the African Union’s ongoing efforts to permit the free motion of individuals, items, and companies because the continent works in the direction of implementing the world’s largest single market, involving at the very least 55 nation states.
Asaase News can solely report that President Nana Akufo-Addo final Wednesday gave govt approval for the implementation of the visa-free journey coverage for all holders of passports issued by different African nations touring to Ghana.
It will likely be recalled that President Akufo-Addo, in his keynote tackle on the Africa Prosperity Dialogues (APD 2024) on Thursday, 25 January 2024, beneath the theme, “Developing Prosperity in Africa: Produce, Add, Value and Trade,” introduced that his administration was dedicated to the visa-free journey coverage for all Africans and that it could implement throughout the yr.
“Many of you had to acquire a visa to come to this event. We made a special arrangement for this conference, reducing the visa acquisition fee by 50%, and we were thus able to receive your visa on arrival,” the president mentioned in his APD 2024 tackle.
“The government of Ghana is committed to ensuring visa-free for all Africans, for all Africans travelling into our country, and the process has begun to get the policy implemented this year,” Akufo-Addo promised.
The annual 3-day Africa Prosperity Dialogues, which attracts about 2,000 enterprise executives and political leaders and institutional stakeholders from throughout the continent, is organised in collaboration with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the AFDB, BADEA, Afreximbank, ECA, UNDP Africa and others to mobilise enterprise and political leaders on the continent to work collectively in the direction of the speedy implementation of Africa’s financial integration.
The setting was due to this fact applicable for the President of Ghana to pledge a visa-free coverage.
In achievement of this pledge, the President granted govt approval on Wednesday, 18 December 2024. Senior officers at each the Office of the President and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have confirmed acquainted that the manager approval was subsequently communicated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration and the Ministry of the Interior on Thursday, 19 December 2024.
Following the manager approval, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration and the Ministry of the Interior have initiated processes for executing the coverage. What is excellent is for the Ghana Immigration Service to announce a particular date for the visa-free coverage to take impact. The begin date is anticipated to be Wednesday, 1 January 2025.
With this approval and implementation of a visa-free journey coverage for all African passport holders to Ghana, the West African nation will turn into the fifth nation on the continent to institute such a coverage. Currently, Rwanda, Seychelles, The Gambia, and Benin are the one African nations that present visa-free entry for all African residents.
The Nigerian industrialist and the richest African, Aliko Dangote, has spoken in regards to the frustration of travelling throughout the continent.
“As an investor, as someone who wants to make Africa great, I have to apply for 35 different visas,” Dangote mentioned at a enterprise discussion board in Rwanda earlier this yr.
“I really don’t have the time to go and drop off my passport in embassies to get a visa,” he added.
Ghana is the host nation for the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat. Ghana’s first impartial chief, Dr Kwame Nkrumah was on the forefront within the marketing campaign to unite Africa right into a one borderless nation.
Ethiopia, the place the headquarters of the African Union is, has been criticised for its restrictive immigration coverage for Africans travelling into the nation.
Writing within the Financial Times on 18 December, Aanu Adeoye acknowledged, “Behind closed doorways, I’ve heard many extra tales from African businesspeople unable to attend occasions in neighbouring nations because of pink tape. The head of a growth lender, for instance, had issue getting maintain of a visa to a southern African nation regardless of receiving an invite from that nation’s president.
“To make matters more bizarre, European and US citizens can often travel across the continent more freely than African nationals. There is a booming trade in wealthy Africans seeking second citizenships partly to solve this problem. Citizenship and residency firm Henley & Partners has opened up shop on the continent to take advantage of the situation.”
Adeoye argues, “Simplifying travel is important if the continent is serious about building deeper internal trade and cultural ties.”
The Nigerian journalist and Weet African correspondent for the FT makes the purpose that after practically seven many years of independence throughout a lot of the continent, modern-day leaders have little excuse for sticking with the established order.
“Globalisation and the free movement of people may be unfashionable elsewhere but it is essential for Africa’s growth. Regional blocs in east, west and southern Africa already have the structures in place to make visa-free travel a reality. The continent must now expand and implement those plans if it is to open up to itself,” he argues.
Reporting by Wilberforce Asare in Accra
Asaase Broadcasting Company airs on Asaase 99.5 Accra, Asaase 98.5 Kumasi, Asaase 99.7 Tamale, Asaase 100.3 Cape Coast, AsaasePa 107.3 (Accra).
Affiliates: Bawku FM 101.5, Bead FM 99.9 (Bimbilla), Mining City Radio 89.5 (Tarkwa), Nandom FM 101.9, Nyatefe Radio 94.5 (Dzodze), Sissala Radio 96.3 (Tumu), Somuaa FM 89.9 (Gushegu), Stone City 90.7 (Ho) and Wale FM 106.9 (Walewale).
Listen on-line: asaaseradio.com, Sound Garden and TuneIn.
Follow us:
X: @asaaseradio995, @Asaase985ksi, @Asaase997tamale, @asaase1003, asaasepa1073
Instagram: asaaseradio99.5, asaase985ksi, asaase100.3, asaase99.7tamale, asaasepa107.3
LinkedIn: firm/asaaseradio995. TikTook: @asaaseradio99.5
Facebook: asaase99.5, asaase985ksi, Asaase100.3, asaase99.7, AsaasePa107.3.
YouTube: AsaaseRadioXtra.
Join the dialog. Accra: name 020 000 9951/054 888 8995, WhatsApp 020 000 0995. Kumasi: name 059 415 7985 or name/WhatsApp 020 631 5260. Tamale: name/WhatsApp/SMS 053 554 6468. Cape Coast: name/WhatsApp 059 388 2652.
#AsaaseRadio
#AsaasePa
#TheVoiceofOurLand
