Visa-free Ghana: Your subsequent African journey journey simply bought simpler
Ghana’s outgoing President Nana Akufo-Addo Friday introduced visa-free journey for all African passport holders from the beginning of this yr, marking a step in direction of continental financial integration.
The announcement got here throughout his last state of the nation handle as he prepares to step down on January 6 after two phrases in workplace.
“I’m proud to have permitted visa-free journey to Ghana for all African passport holders, with impact from the start of this yr,” Akufo-Addo mentioned in his speech to parliament.
“That is the logical subsequent step to the African Continental Free Commerce Space (AfCFTA) and the workings of the most important buying and selling bloc on this planet,” he mentioned.
“All these are important components to the realisation of the AU’s Agenda 2063, which envisages an built-in and related Africa by 2063,” he added, referring to the African Union’s growth blueprint for a 50-year interval.
Ghana joins Rwanda, Seychelles, Gambia and Benin in providing visa-free entry to African travellers.
Ghana had beforehand allowed visa-free entry to residents of 26 African nations and visas on arrival for travellers from 25 others, whereas solely two African nations — Eritrea and Morocco — required a visa earlier than entry.
The visa-free coverage builds on Ghana’s efforts to strengthen its worldwide status, significantly via initiatives just like the 2019 12 months of Return, which celebrated the African diaspora and commemorated 400 years for the reason that transatlantic slave commerce.
The marketing campaign attracted hundreds of tourists, together with celebrities, to Ghana and led to some receiving citizenship, bolstering the nation’s world profile as a cultural and tourism hub.
Akufo-Addo additionally used his final handle to trumpet financial progress beneath his management, citing a rise in Ghana’s gross worldwide reserves to $8 billion, from $6.2 billion in 2017, and vital GDP development in 2024.
“Financial development has returned to the pre-Covid trajectory,” he mentioned, projecting a 6.3-percent development charge for 2025.
“I go away behind a Ghana that’s thriving, one which has navigated vital world challenges with exceptional tenacity, whose economic system is steadily rebounding, and whose establishments are working successfully,” he mentioned.
The oil-and-gold-rich West African nation is among the most secure democracies in Africa.
Since 2022, it has been battling one among its worst financial crises in many years and is at the moment beneath a $3-billion Worldwide Financial Fund reduction programme.
The outgoing president arms over energy to John Mahama, who received the December elections.
