Ghana opens up visa-free travel to all Africans

All African passport holders will now able to visit Ghana without needing a visa, outgoing President Nana Akufo-Addo has said.

Akufo-Addo announced the plan last month but in his final state-of-the-nation address on Friday he said that the policy had come into effect at the beginning of the year.

Visa-free travel within the continent has long been an aspiration for those promoting pan-African values and is seen as vital for economic cooperation.

Ghana is now the fifth African country to offer this to travellers from the rest of the continent.

Rwanda, Seychelles, The Gambia and Benin are the others.

“I am proud to have approved visa-free travel to Ghana for all African passport holders, with effect from the beginning of this year,” Akufo-Addo told lawmakers in his last address to parliament before he steps down next week after eight years in office.

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“This is the logical next step to the African Continental Free Trade Area and the workings of the largest trading bloc in the world,” he said referring to the zone that came into effect four years ago.

In an annual African ranking of visa-openness, Ghana was placed fifth last year as it already offered visa-free travel to citizens of 26 continental countries.

Ghana in recent years has been promoting itself as a destination for people from the continent and the African diaspora to visit. In 2019, Akufo-Addo launched the Year of Return – an initiative to encourage those with African roots to invest in the country.

The president used his last state-of-the-nation speech to review his two terms in power.

Despite him overseeing tough economic times for most Ghanaians, he said that “growth has returned to the pre-Covid trajectory” adding that he leaves behind a country “that is thriving”.

Having served two terms already, Akufo-Addo was unable to run for re-election last month. But the man his party chose to succeed him, Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia, lost by a large margin to John Mahama.

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.