The host of Greetings From Abroad now Welcome Home from Abroad, television shows which focused on the living conditions of Ghanaians living outside the country and how those who lived abroad are now adjusting to life back home, says she has played a pivotal role in integrating Ghanaians returnees back into society.
Nana Adwoa Awindor told Adom Entertainment News that the recent trip by officials of the Constitutional Review Commission to interact with Ghanaians living abroad as well as the passage of the Representation of the People’s Amendment Law (ROPAL), intended to allow those outside the country to exercise their franchise was made possible after Greetings from Abroad highlighted their living conditions and activities.
Nana Adwoa was the host of Greetings From Abroad, a TV programme that for the ten years it was on air showcased the living conditions, activities of Ghanaians living abroad and also brought them closer to their families.
The programme had a huge impact and was able to link up families whose communication links had been broken for years.
She said Greetings from Abroad was designed to encourage Ghanaians abroad to refocus their attention on Ghana and exploit the investment opportunities in the country.
She said before the advent of the programme, there was nothing like that for Ghanaians abroad to come back to their roots adding that they were totally forgotten. “Nobody bothered with them; their conditions of living, social and cultural lives until the programme came to being.”
She said after 10 years, she felt Greetings From Abroad had served its purpose and it was time to redirect attention back to those who had come back home and how they were settling in which led to the creation of Welcome Home From Abroad.
The programme traces where the person (s) lived abroad, what made him/her come back home and what is going on in their lives now.
Nana Adwoa said the programme has achieved results in highlighting the challenges those from abroad are facing in resettling as well as their successes.
She explained that so far hundreds of Ghanaians have returned to Ghana and have established business that are offering employment opportunities to the youth.
She mentioned the long processes people go through in registering companies, land disputes and lack of support from those in Ghana as some of the challenges that are deterring Ghanaians abroad from resettling.
She therefore appealed to stakeholders to put in place adequate measures to ensure that Ghanaians who return from outside the country can feel at home and establish companies to increase job opportunities in the country.
Story: Kwaku Adu Kumi/Adom News/Ghana
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