President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo say before he leaves office this year, Ghana will give visa-free access to all African countries.
He was speaking at the opening of the three-day Africa Prosperity Dialogue, organized by the Africa Prosperity Network and 3i Africa on the theme “Delivering Prosperity in Africa: Produce, Add Value, Trade.
Coming to this conference, participants from other African countries had a discounted visa fee and visa on arrival. But the president said before he leaves office this year all African countries will have visa-free entry into Ghana.
He said the policy document is in the works and it will surely be implemented before he finishes his second term.
The president was applauded for the announcement, but the Senior Vice President for Markets at the MTN Group, Ebenezer Asante noted that Visa-free access for Africans into all African countries should have been done 20 years ago to enable free movement and trade on the continent.
He noted that, whereas AfCFTA seeks to ride on the back of digitalization to facilitate trade on the continent, free movement of people should have enabled long before today.
Eben Asante described the way African leaders protect sovereignty of their individual territories over the integration of the continent as “the tyranny of sovereignty” saying it must stop now, if Africans are to leapfrog their development challenges.
On the issue of digitalization, he noted that Africans must move the concept beyond just a slogan to actualize it and reap the benefits thereof.
I see digital public infrastructure before developed across the continent and that is something that the peoples of Africa must embrace and make use of to drive trade and improve lives across Africa,” he said.