Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa on Monday dismissed concerns circulating on social media that the government had breached an existing contract in rolling out Ghana’s new electronic visa system, insisting that no e-visa contract exists that could be violated, even as the specific contractual history surrounding the claim adds a layer of political complexity to his assurance.
Speaking at the launch of the e-Visa portal in Accra, Ablakwa said concerns over a possible breach of contract and exposure to judgment debt were unfounded. “There is no such existing e-visa contract, nothing of the sort exists,” he said. According to the minister, government checks and consultations with legal authorities, including the Attorney General, confirmed that an earlier agreement related only to machine-readable visa stickers and not to an electronic visa platform. “The Attorney General’s opinion is that that does not represent an e-visa arrangement,” Ablakwa said.
“There will be no judgement debt. No contract has been cancelled,” he added.
Ablakwa said the e-Visa system is being implemented under a public-private partnership arrangement in which a private partner, identified by Asaase Radio as Rock Africa, would finance and deploy the platform under the supervision of the Ministry of Communications, the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) and the Cyber Security Authority, recovering its investment over time through the operation of the system. He said the arrangement ensures the government bears no upfront costs.
The assurance arrives against a significant political backdrop. In October 2024, Ablakwa — then a member of the parliamentary opposition — published what he described as a “dubious” $38.2 million visa processing contract between the outgoing Akufo-Addo government and Access Citizens Services Ghana Limited, signed just weeks before the change of government. That agreement granted Access Citizens exclusive handling of all front-end visa applications worldwide until September 2028 with the option of a five-year renewal. It was that contract, not the machine-readable sticker arrangement, that critics appear to have been referencing in their social media concerns about potential contract breach.
Ablakwa did not directly address the Access Citizens contract at Monday’s launch. His clarification focused exclusively on the Attorney General’s distinction between a machine-readable visa sticker arrangement and the new digital platform, leaving open whether the October 2024 contract with Access Citizens remains active or has been separately resolved.
Ablakwa confirmed that African travellers will no longer pay visa fees to enter Ghana, describing the decision as the first time in the country’s history that visa fees for Africans have been completely scrapped. The e-Visa launch at the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City in Accra is timed to coincide with Africa Day.
