Government reduces visa fees on arrival for 'The Year of Return'

Government has reviewed downwards visa fees on arrival for “The Year of Return, Ghana 2019” from $150 to $75. This, it says is to allow a lot of the Diaspora to participate in the various activities for the programme.

The yearlong event which commenced at the beginning of this year is a major landmark spiritual and birth-right journey inviting the Global African family, home and abroad, to mark 400 years of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in Jamestown, Virginia.

The program also aims at celebrating the cumulative resilience of all the victims of the Trans Atlantic slave Trade who were scattered and displaced through the world in North America, South America, the Caribbean, Europe and Asia.

Speaking to the Diplomatic Corps on the programme in Accra, a Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Charles Owiredu said “our Missions’ abroad are liaising with Ghanaians associations, airlines, etc to work and make it relatively easy and convenient for those travelling to Ghana to participate in the programmes of “The Year of Return, Ghana 2019.”

“The Government of Ghana is also in the process of working to have visa agreements with some countries such as those in the Caribbean where the Diaspora total number is quite significant. This year, for instance, the Government of Ghana and Jamaica established a visa-free agreement where nationals of each of the two countries do not need a visa to travel to other’s country,” he emphasized.

The Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister also indicated that “in line with President Akufo-Addo’s vision of a “Ghana Beyond Aid”, the engagement of the Diaspora remained a major development programme of the Government.

“With its democratic credentials, rule of law and the stability of the country, Ghana intended to serve as a pacesetter for welcoming their own back to their roots and to provide for assimilating them into the Ghanaian society in particular and African societies in general,” he stressed.