Ghana is moving towards a future in which all people of African descent worldwide can enter the country without paying visa fees, President John Dramani Mahama announced on Monday, as he commissioned the country’s first electronic visa platform at a ceremony marking the African Union Day.
The declaration, made before an audience of ministers, diplomats and traditional leaders, goes beyond the immediate policy launched, the abolition of visa fees for African passport holders travelling for business or tourism. Mahama directed the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Interior to begin working “expeditiously” on the modalities required to extend that access to the global African diaspora, framing the ambition as a matter of ancestral connection rather than diplomatic reciprocity.
“We envisage a future,” he said, “in which all people of African descent can return and travel to Ghana without paying visa fees”, and “connect with their ancestral homeland.”
The e-visa platform, Ghana’s first, allows travellers to apply online, upload supporting documents electronically, make secure payments and receive travel authorisation by email or phone. Processing decisions are delivered within 48 hours. The fee for non-exempt nationalities is set at $260, covering business and tourist visa categories. Diplomatic passport holders, students, family visa applicants and nationals of the approximately 50 countries with existing bilateral visa waiver agreements with Ghana remain outside the portal’s scope.
Mahama was direct in acknowledging that the continental framework underpinning his vision remains stalled. The African Union’s Free Movement of Persons Protocol, adopted in Addis Ababa in January 2018, has secured ratification from only a handful of member states, far below the threshold required for it to enter into force.
Rather than await consensus, Mahama said Ghana would act unilaterally, stating that “where continental processes move too slowly, decisive national leadership must fill that gap.” He urged AU member states, including the continent’s largest economies, to act with “great urgency” to implement the protocol.
The president also used the occasion to push the digital migration agenda further. He directed the Minister of Interior, the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre and the Minister of Transport to extend the e-visa platform architecture to cover full automation of work permit and residence permit processing. The current paper-based system, he said, was overdue for replacement, and the expanded platform would “reduce processing time, eliminate procedural errors, boost foreign direct investment, strengthen regulatory compliance and improve the ease of doing business.”
Improvements to the physical airport experience were also announced. New 3D scanners are currently being installed across Terminal 2 and Terminal 3 at Kotoka International Airport, removing the requirement for travellers to extract laptops and liquids from carry-on baggage during security screening. Additional equipment expected in August will eliminate the need for passengers to remove shoes and belts, changes Mahama positioned as part of a broader effort to treat the full travel corridor, not only the visa desk, as a national competitiveness concern.
The e-visa launch, Mahama noted, builds on the Advanced Passenger Information system commissioned in August 2025, which he described as having “laid the foundation for smarter, more secure and more efficient border management.”
Ghana’s previous on-arrival visa arrangement for African passport holders, which Mahama said he had initiated during his first term as president, is discontinued and replaced by the new electronic regime with immediate effect.
