President John Dramani Mahama has hailed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Ghana and Zambia to allow visa-free travel for all categories of passport holders.
Ghana and Zambia have revitalised the Permanent Joint Commission for Cooperation, providing a structured, results-oriented framework for collaboration across priority sectors, including trade and investment, energy, tourism, mining, agriculture, education, science and technology, youth development, and defence cooperation.
“We have signed 10 Memorandums of Understanding as the framework for our cooperation. Prominent among these is the MOU to allow visa-free travel for all categories of passport holders between Ghana and Zambia.
“This is an important step towards the free movement of our people on the African continent,” President Mahama wrote on his X page.
Ghana and Zambia have revitalised the Permanent Joint Commission for Cooperation, providing a structured, results-oriented framework for collaboration across priority sectors, including trade and investment, energy, tourism, mining, agriculture, education, science and technology,… pic.twitter.com/DBYjrIWV9A
— John Dramani Mahama (@JDMahama) February 6, 2026
The signed instruments cover the following areas:
1. Diaspora cooperation between the Republic of Zambia and the Republic of Ghana
2. Cooperation in disaster risk management
3. Institutional collaboration between the Zambia Development Agency and the Ghana Export Promotion Authority
4. Standardization and conformity assessment between the Zambia Bureau of Standards and the Ghana Standards Authority
5.Waiver of visa requirements for holders of diplomatic, official/service, and ordinary passports
6. Addendum to the Memorandum of Understanding on military defence cooperation.
7. Rules of Procedure for the Joint Defence Implementation Committee
8.Bilateral Air Services Agreement between the Republic of Ghana and the Republic of Zambia
9.Cooperation in the field of health
10.Regulatory collaboration between the Zambia Medicines Regulatory Authority and the Food and Drugs Authority of Ghana
President Mahama also addressed the Zambian Parliament on Thursday, February 5,
During the address, he said many African countries remain trapped in structural dependencies that limit their ability to chart independent development paths.
“Too many African countries remain trapped in what I describe as a triple dependency — dependency on external actors for security choices, dependency on donors for health and education systems, and dependency on suppliers of critical minerals while capturing little or no value,” he said.
According to him, the situation continues to weaken Africa’s sovereignty and prevents the continent from fully realising its vast potential.
President Mahama observed that Africa is facing what he termed a “pandemic of unfulfilled potential,” marked by high youth unemployment, fragile health systems and economies that extract wealth without building local capacity.
“Africa therefore faces a different pandemic — the pandemic of unfulfilled potential. Millions of our young people remain unemployed, health systems are fragile, and economies extract wealth without building capacity,” he noted.
