South Africa grants visa-free status to Ghana

Ghana is the latest country to be granted a visa-free status by the South African government.

South Africa's Department of Home Affairs has added Ghana to a list of seven countries whose nationals will be permitted to enter South Africa visa-free.

According to the Minister of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi, citizens of the seven countries are able to enter South Africa without a visa.

“Tourism will soar if we relax visa requirements for entry into South Africa. We know that Tourism is very important for job creation,” he said today at a briefing in South Africa.

“Out of the 193 countries who are member states of the United Nations, the Department has granted visa-free status to 75 countries. Of these 16 are in our continent and are SADC members and 59 are from all over the world.”

Other countries added to South Africa's new list of visa-free countries are Qatar, United Arab Emirates, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Cuba and Sao Tome and Principe.

Mr Motsoaledi said that his office will immediately enter into discussions with the respective countries about how a visa-free regime will work.

He added that further discussions will also be held for countries like China, India and Nigeria.

“While we are busy tackling the matter of the three countries, we shall this financial year increase two and a half times the number of people who work for Home Affairs to process visas in both China and India.

“We shall double the number of people who process visas to our country in Nigeria,” he said.

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