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AU welcomes Ghana's visa-on-arrival policy for AU member citizens

Xinhua, March 9, 2016 Adjust font size:

Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, has welcomed Ghana's decision to introduce a visa-on-arrival policy for citizens of AU member states.

President John Dramani Mahama of Ghana announced the decision in his State of the Nations address to the Ghanaian Parliament on Feb. 25, according to an AU statement on Tuesday.

"With effect from July this year, we will be allowing citizens of AU Member States to enter our country and obtain visas on arrival with the option to stay for up to thirty days and experience what our country has to offer. This measure, with time, should stimulate air travel, trade, investment and tourism", said President Mahama in his address.

The decision is a result of a resolution adopted at the AU Executive Council meeting held earlier this year in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, which stipulated that AU member states review their internal and external security realities in an attempt to implement mechanisms allowing for the issuing of visas on arrival for citizens of member states, with the possibility of a 30-day stay.

The AU Commission Chairperson has expressed her great pleasure in Ghana taking immediate concrete steps to implement the decision of the Executive Council.

She also noted that Ghana is reaffirming its Pan-Africanism and upholding its place in the area of the African continental integration, which is a key tenet towards the realization of Agenda 2063.

"After Ghana, I am convinced that many other African countries will follow suit, in the interest of achieving an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa," said Dlamini-Zuma.

Meanwhile, in another statement Tuesday, the pan-African bloc has hailed the open skies agreement reached between Ethiopia and Rwanda.

The open-skies agreement would allow the national airlines of both countries to operate freely, with no limitations in the airspace of the other, said the statement.

The initiative is likely to boost operations for both countries and thus yielding major gains on revenue, it said. Endit