Former President John Dramani Mahama has advised African leaders to offer their fellow African nationals special protocol services in the form of visas-on-arrival in a bid to open up the continent for investments.
According to him, this will remove the hustle African investors go through trying to access visas when they want to visit other parts of the continent.
“I implemented the protocol for the issuance of visas-on-arrival for all African Passport holders in June 2016. This has taken away the hustle African business people experienced travelling in and out of Ghana.”
[contextly_sidebar id=”GEA9wndW8eSulvgbjBzrWfl80pqPrAB9″]“We can do same for the whole continent. Not only for people but also for goods. We must open the opportunities of our economies to our people. This will stem the outflow of over $190 billion from the continent each year (E.g. in the road construction industry),” he added.
The former President said this when he addressed the 5th Annual Commonwealth Africa Summit in the United Kingdom today [Tuesday], March 13, 2018.
The summit was on the theme: “Common Good.”
John Mahama also explained that visas on arrival could lure African businesses to invest their monies in local economies.
“African business people will reinvest their monies in the African economy. Technology is available and for sale. We must not see investors as only foreigners.”
He also called for investment in African youth saying the continent is blessed with the necessary human resource needed to transform the continent.
“What is required in Africa is investment. Investment in these youths to deploy their skills, their talents and their innovations. Venture financing that allows the youth to transform their dreams and aspirations into multi-million Pound businesses.”
“Investment in social and economic infrastructure, in manufacturing plants that add value to the natural resources available on our continent in order to expand the availability of good paying jobs, increase taxes collected by our states in order to further open up our countries for more investments and business,” he added.
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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin