Ghana had one of the continent’s most restrictive visa policies before last week. But all that changed on Independence Day. The President then announced that nationals of all African countries would now get their visas on arrival, taking the cue from Rwanda that announced a similar decision in 2013. It had always been Ghana’s first President Kwame Nkrumah’s dream to have a united and integrated Africa, but, unfortunately, those dreams died with him. The amount of column space Ghana’s move generated was quite amazing if not annoying for those who have tirelessly advocated for free movement of people on our continent; what is so difficult about it? Why do we willingly open our borders to rich western countries – nearly all of them former colonial masters – but opt to keep out our African brothers and sisters? Among the 20 African countries with liberal visa policy, only one is from North Africa (Mauritania) but there is none from Central Africa. According to the Visa Openness Index published by the African Development Bank (AfDB), there is more to gain by opening up than living as a recluse as it “promotes talent mobility and business opportunities”. Among the solutions it offers is having an African passport for business people and promoting the use of regional passports and issuing eVisas. But that will remain an uphill task as most countries still lag behind technologically to the extent that only nine countries in Africa have eVisa facilities. So, at the end of the day, only embracing technology will be the continent’s door to meaningful integration.
