A Ghanaian tourism delegation has arrived in Uganda to meet President Museveni and urge him to support the campaign for a visa-free Africa.
The team is led by Ras Mubarak, the campaign leader of the Trans-African Tourism and Unity Campaign. He told journalists in Kampala today that Africa must move towards abolishing visa restrictions if it is to unlock its economic potential.
Mubarak said he launched the campaign on August 18 this year and has since travelled by road through 22 African countries, engaging heads of state and other leaders on the need to open borders to all Africans.
“As Pan-Africans, we have so far travelled through about 20 countries across the continent using road transport, including Lesotho, Tanzania, Rwanda, Nigeria, Benin, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, the DRC, Congo-Brazzaville and Uganda, among others,” he said.
He argued that a visa-free continent would boost tourism, stimulate African economies and create more jobs. Mubarak added that regions such as the Arab world and Europe have advanced partly because of simplified cross-border movement and single-visa arrangements.
Dr Basil Ajer, the director of Tourism, Wildlife, and Antiquities at the ministry of Tourism, said the cost and difficulty of travelling from one African country to another remains a major obstacle to tourism growth on the continent.
“It is very expensive for a person to move from one country to another, and this hinders the growth of African tourism. If we had a visa-free Africa, we would be far ahead in terms of tourist attraction. Even tourists from outside Africa find it difficult to move between countries because of the lack of direct flights,” he said.
Ajer welcomed the campaign and praised the Ghanaian delegation for travelling across the continent by road to advocate for visa-free travel.
