Ghana’s visa-free coverage for all Africans a transfer in the suitable course – AfCFTA
The Commissioner for Economic Development Trade Tourism Industry and Minerals on the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) secretariat, Albert Muchanga, has acknowledged that President Akufo-Addo’s resolution to grant govt approval for visa-free journey to Ghana by all Africans is a transfer in the suitable course and marks a step ahead to the imaginative and prescient of making a single African Market below AfCFTA.
President Akufo-Addo fulfilled a promise delivered final January to worldwide individuals, 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 probably be a significant increase for the African Union’s ongoing efforts to permit the free motion of individuals, items, and providers because the continent works in direction of implementing the world’s largest single market, involving at the least 55 nation-states.
“It is most welcome. It is a move in the right direction. We have the Protocol of the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community Relating to the Free Movement of People, Right of Residence, and Right of Establishment. The Protocol also provides for mutual recognition of professional qualifications,” Albert Muchanga informed Asaase News in an unique interview.
“The move removes a major nontariff barrier to intra-African trade and takes a step forward in realizing the vision of creating a single African market under the African Continental Free Trade Area, which is headquartered in Accra, Ghana,” Mr Muchanga added.
Asaase News completely reported on Tuesday, 24 December 2024, that President Nana Akufo-Addo final Wednesday (18 December) 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 probably be recalled that President Akufo-Addo, in his keynote tackle on the Africa Prosperity Dialogues (APD 2024) on Thursday, 25 January 2024, below 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 be applied inside the 12 months.
“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 stated 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, 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 direction of the speedy implementation of Africa’s financial integration.
The setting was, subsequently, 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 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 develop 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 stated at a enterprise discussion board in Rwanda earlier this 12 months.
“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 of the marketing campaign to unite Africa right into a single borderless nation.
Ethiopia, the place the African Union headquarters 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 on account of purple tape. The head of a improvement lender, for instance, had problem 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 citizenship partly to solve this problem. Citizenship and residency firm Henley & Partners have 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 factors out that after almost seven a long time 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
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