{"id":114344,"date":"2026-02-06T13:43:04","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T13:43:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=114344"},"modified":"2026-02-06T13:43:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T13:43:04","slug":"mahama-ayariga-calls-for-visa-free-africa-open-skies-and-single-biometric-passport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=114344","title":{"rendered":"Mahama Ayariga calls for visa-free Africa, open skies and single biometric passport"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 12 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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Majority Leader of Parliament, Mahama Ayariga, has called for the removal of travel and trade barriers across Africa, urging leaders to accelerate efforts towards a visa-free continent.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the 2026 Africa Prosperity Dialogue, held under the theme \u201cEmpowering SMEs, Women and Youth in Africa\u2019s Single Market: Innovate, Collaborate, Trade\u201d, Mr Ayariga said free movement of people and goods is essential for Africa\u2019s economic growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want a visa-free Africa,\u201d he said, pointing to the benefits already seen within the sub-region. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have seen how a visa-free West Africa has been enormously supportive.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also called for greater air connectivity across the continent. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe want open African skies,\u201d Mr Ayariga said, adding that Africa should move towards \u201cone African biometric passport\u201d to ease travel for its citizens.<\/p>\n

The Majority Leader stressed the need for modern infrastructure to support young people and small businesses operating across borders.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s build an infrastructure that will enable our youth to trade digitally across borders, to have their mobile money operate across borders,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said that young Africans are also demanding recognition of their academic qualifications across the continent.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur youth want their degrees recognised across the continent,\u201d Mr Ayariga said.<\/p>\n

According to him, Africa has already made significant progress at the regional level, particularly in West Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of progress has been made, especially in West Africa,\u201d he said, adding that his experience as a member of the ECOWAS Parliament for nearly a decade gave him first-hand knowledge of these achievements.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the demands that have been made here, I recall we worked on them diligently and in West Africa we enjoy many of those facilities,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Mr Ayariga said similar arrangements exist in other parts of the continent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you travel to other blocs on the continent, you will find out that at the regional levels, many of the issues we are advocating for are being enjoyed,\u201d he said, listing regions including North, East, Southern and Central Africa, as well as Francophone, Lusophone, Arab and Anglophone Africa.<\/p>\n

He said that the next step is to integrate these regional benefits so that all Africans can enjoy them at the same time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is needed now is to have the various blocs integrate those facilities that they have given to citizens in their blocs and let all Africans enjoy them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe the vision that informs this campaign can succeed and will succeed. Our Parliament stands ready to walk the talk. We are ready to pass all the agreements needed to grant visa-free status to every African,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Majority Leader of Parliament, Mahama Ayariga, has called for the removal of travel and trade barriers across Africa, urging leaders to accelerate efforts towards a visa-free continent.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[575,1377,1883,10,9,16506,6766],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mahama-ayariga","category-music","category-national","category-politics","category-popular","category-single-biometric-passport","category-visa-free-africa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=114344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114344\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=114344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=114344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=114344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}