The President of the country Nana Akufo-Addo has reportedly given the decision the green light. Akwasi Agyeman, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Authority says the news “was a wonderful Christmas present given to us in the industry by the President”.
“We’ve been clamouring for this for a while, especially because Ghana is also host of the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat and being in that leading position, we need to show by example that for African countries to be able to move goods and services and people seamlessly, this visa barrier must be removed. And so we’re very happy, we see the benefits to the industry. We see the benefits to trade, we see the benefits to regional integration as Africans. We are quite excited that it is coming at this time already for countries like South Africa (SA) where last year Ghana had reciprocal free visa arrangement, we’ve seen growing numbers of visitors coming in and also going to SA and we believe that this will further boost tourism for us in Ghana. Number two on our list of inbound countries globally is Nigeria, which is 45 minutes away. They already don’t require visa to come to Ghana, so it tells us that now that the barriers be removed, other countries within the central, southern and the middle belt of Africa will also have that ease to come to Ghana, and we can also go there reciprocally and it will help the tourism drive that all Africans need. We need to know each other. We need to know our continent and we need to trade amongst ourselves as Africans,” said Agyeman.
Speaking on Channel Africa’s Africa Update, Agyeman spoke of all that Ghana pride itself on.
“We pride ourselves on what I call a buffet of attractions, because for those who are interested in culture, Ghana is a centrepiece of culture. We have a lot of cultural festivals, dating back to the 15th century and beyond. I mean very, very old festivals that are celebrated almost every other month. There’s a cultural activity here. Ghana also boasts about 75% of the 4th castles and dungeons that were built along the western coast of Africa. And to that extent those who want to trace the history of Africans, especially those in the diaspora, can look to Ghana as a place. Obviously the leisure tourism, the beach fronts, the water bodies, the events, like Afrocella, Afro Future, little Havana and all those things that happen here every December. Above all, as you may know Ghanaians are very hospitable people. The warmth of the people everywhere you go in Ghana, you feel welcome and thanks be to God, we are also in the centre of the world. I mean, we are the closest landmass to latitude and longitude 0 and so that means that access to Ghana is very easy”.
–ChannelAfrica–
