The Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has announced a series of new visa waiver agreements in the coming months, as Ghana’s passport is on track to become the most valued on the continent.
He made this statement during a media interaction after holding bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the 39th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Thursday.
“I expect more visa waiver agreements this year, even within March, you’ll be hearing some good news and expect more in the months ahead,” he added.
The minister said securing reciprocal visa waivers remained his priority since taking office. He described a coordinated push to expand access for Ghanaian passport holders beyond Africa.
“We want to add more value, we want the Ghanaian passport to be the most valued passport in Africa and one of the most valued anywhere in the world, and we are on course,” he noted.
Mr Ablakwa commended the team of diplomats for the progress and said advanced negotiations with multiple countries had accelerated since his appointment.
“I’m excited about the progress we are making, and I want to congratulate the team of diplomats I work with, who are helping me in the negotiations and who do a lot of heavy lifting,” he stated.
The minister also detailed recent upgrades to the passport itself and said the document was now fully chip-embedded and among the most secure in the world.
He said the passport’s upgraded security features had gone largely unnoticed by the public, though experts now ranked it among the 10 most secure documents in the world.
According to him, Ghana had moved ahead of many other countries in that regard and said authorities had invested in artificial intelligence tools and modern technology to prevent fraud.
He warned that as Ghana signed more visa waiver agreements, criminal networks would attempt to acquire passports illegally.
“The bad guys will try to lay their hands on our passports; they will try to acquire Ghanaian passports when they are not citizens and are not entitled. So be assured that we have improved the security,” he stated.
He added that all these improvements had been carried out alongside a 30 per cent reduction in passport fees and said courier delivery had been extended to all regions.
Joyce Adwoa Animia Ocran, ISD
