Ghana is set to implement a policy to grant visa-free entry to all Africans visiting the country, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo pledged on Thursday.
Akufo-Addo made this pledge while opening the 2024 Africa Prosperity Dialogue at the Presidential retreat center at Peduase in Ghana’s Eastern Region.
He said Ghana’s gesture was in line with the objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to create a seamless single market on the continent to drive economic growth, job creation, and poverty eradication.
“The government of Ghana is committed to ensuring visa-free entry for all Africans traveling to our country. The processes have begun to implement the policy this year, even before I leave office,” Akufo-Addo announced.
He said such policies were needed throughout the continent to ensure the free movement of people, goods, and services to use trade as a catalyst for economic transformation in Africa.
Speaking on the broad objectives of the AfCFTA, the Ghanaian president said efforts should be made to secure the buy-in of the private sector, the farmers, and small and medium-scale enterprises to understand the benefits they stand to gain from the continental free trade.
Akufo-Addo stressed that the implementation of AfCFTA must be more representative, benefiting the different strata of African society.
To enhance the implementation of free trade in the continental free trade area, the African Union in 2018 adopted the protocol of free movement of people, right of residence, and right of establishment to pave the way for free movements of Africans from their countries of origin to other member countries.
The Africa Prosperity Dialogue, a collaboration between the AfCFTA Secretariat and the African Prosperity Network, a continent-wide trade advocacy think tank, is in its second year, having held its first conference in January 2023.
The 2024 conference opened on the theme, “Produce, Add Value, and Trade, with former Mozambican President Joachim Chissano, also the chairman of the African Club, a committee of former African Heads of State in attendance.