1. Successfully evacuated over 80 Ghanaian citizens (mostly students) from Sudan to safety in Ethiopia and Egypt in 2023 following the outbreak of the deadly conflict in Khartoum. Akufo-Addo’s government ultimately brought the evacuees home to the Kotoka International Airport (now known as Accra International Airport).
2. Successfully evacuated over 1,000 (one thousand) Ghanaian citizens from Ukraine following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine War in 2022, making Ghana the first African country to do so. The first batch of the evacuees arrived at the Accra International Airport in March 2022.
3. Successfuly evacuated about 2, 262 Ghanaian citizens from Lebanon during the COVID-19 lock down.
4. Successfully evacuated over 9, 000 Ghanaian citizens and resident permit holders from countries around the world such as South Africa, Gambia, Ukraine, Benin, Togo, United States of America(USA), China, Burkina Faso, United Kingdom(UK), and United Arab Emirates.
Some of the major foreign policy achievements of Nana Akufo-Addo as the sitting President of Ghana are as follows:
1. Successfully lobbied for Ghana to be the headquarters of the African Continental Free Trade Area(AfCFTA), currently the AfCFTA Secretariat is located in Accra, further solidifying Ghana as the gateway to Africa, as well as cementing the country as the epicenter for intra-African trade and economic integration.
2. Led aggressive advocacy for Borderless Africa.
3. Firmly positioned Ghana as the leading global voice on climate change advocacy, as well as successfully lobbied for Ghana(precisely Accra) as the headquarters for the Climate Vulnerable Forum(CVF).
4. Aggressively promoted the “Ghana & Africa Beyond Aid Diplomacy anchored on the need for Ghana and African Countries to collectively work together in moving away from the traditional aid dependency toward trade, investment, and strategic partnerships with the rest of the world.
5. Spearheaded the adoption of UN Resolution 2667, and secured UN funding for 75% of expenses for African Union-led peacekeeping operations across the African continent.
6. Successfully fostered the African Diaspora participation in tourism, trade and investment through the launched of “Year of Return”, and “Beyond the Return’ campaigns.
7. Officially granted Ghanaian citizenship to hundreds of African diasporans who committed to making Ghana their second home country, as well as meaningfully contribute to the national development of Ghana.
8. Prominently led the global adovacy for the reparations and formal apologies to Haiti and the wider African diaspora for historical exploitation and the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
9. Construction of various treatment centres across Ghana to help in the National COVID-19 Treatment including the construction of the Ghana Infectious Disease Centre in partnership with private sector funding support.
10. Successfully spearheaded the regional security mechanism to prevent the spillover of terroism and violent extremism from the Sahel into Coastal West African States.
11. Successfully secured Ghana a two-year non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council(2022-2023).
12. Successfully served two consecutive terms as the Chairman of Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS), providing leadership and mediation efforts to restore democratic rule in troubled nations across the West African sub-region.
I would like to commend President John Mahama and Hon. Okudzeto Ablakwa for continuing the good examples of Nana Akufo-Addo and Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey in the area.of evecuation exercises, bringing home stranded Ghanaians from South Africa due to the ongoing Xenophobia attacks in South Africa.
Source: Razak Kojo Opoku(PhD)
