Vice President Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang has directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) to move beyond traditional diplomacy and take an active lead in expanding Ghana’s trade presence across Africa, with particular focus on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Speaking during a working visit to the Ministry in Accra on Wednesday, April 15, she challenged officials to explain why foreign businesses consistently thrive within Ghana while relatively few Ghanaian companies operate competitively in other African markets. She pressed the Ministry to use its agencies, directorates, and overseas missions as practical tools for investment attraction and business expansion, not merely as channels for policy communication.
The Vice President also praised the Ministry for its diplomatic effort in securing international support for a United Nations (UN) General Assembly resolution that formally designates the trafficking and enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity.
Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa outlined a series of administrative reforms underway at the Ministry, including the introduction of chip-embedded passports meeting International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standards, a 30 percent reduction in passport processing costs, and an expedited one-day emergency passport service. He added that passport application centres have been expanded to cover all sixteen regions and that visa waiver negotiations are ongoing, with visa-free travel for Africans targeted for May 2026.
Chief Director Ambassador Khadija Iddrisu reaffirmed the Ministry’s operational commitment to national development objectives.
The visit forms part of a broader government programme of working engagements with ministries, departments, and agencies to align public institutions with national economic priorities.
