Diaspora Affairs Town Hall Meeting in Ghana

This past month, a Ghana Diaspora Affairs town hall meeting took place in Accra, Ghana at an infamous Osu castle.

The purpose of the meeting was to create a direct and structured communication channel between the Government of Ghana and the global Ghanaian and historic African diaspora.

The Diaspora Affairs, Office of the President is an official governmental liaison that connects the nation with the global Ghanaian diaspora, descendants and the historic African diaspora. This is the official governmental liaison which connects the state with the global Ghanaian diaspora, descendants and the historic African diaspora. The director of the office  is Kofi Okyere Darko, who shared opening remarks for the event. 

The meeting's mistress of ceremonies was Ivy Prosper, the Social Media Manager for the ‘Year of Return’ and ‘Beyond the Return’ initiatives, under the Ghana Tourism Authority. She also previously worked with the Ghana Tourism Authority.

The town hall meeting was organized into panels, where each panel addressed particular topics and allowed members from the audience to ask questions. These discussions were then facilitated by Ivy Prosper.

There were 9 panels overall, however we will focus upon highlights from only two of the panels where some heated discussion took place that comprised the majority of the town hall meeting.

The panel on Citizenship, Immigration, Residency & National Identification was comprised of representatives for the Ministry of the Interior (Migration Unit), the National Identification Authority, and the Ghana Immigration Service. 

A point of somewhat heated discussion was the citizenship fee of 25,000 GHS. This fee for citizenship has been described by Black people in/from the diaspora as exorbitant. One audience member stated that it goes against restorative citizenship that President Mahama has spoken about since his election at the end of 2024.

Additionally, it was pointed out that strong ties to Ghana are required for citizenship. These include social ties (i.e. documented lineage, DNA) and/or economic/investment ties (i.e. starting a business, building a home, etc).

Another issue that was discussed is “USA” remaining as a prefix before a person's identification number (on their national identification card) when someone obtains citizenship, instead of this prefix being replaced by the prefix GHA (for Ghana). This can be problematic with certain agencies that will then still identify the new citizen as a foreigner because this prefix hasn’t changed.

The panel on Property & Real Estate was comprised of representatives for the Real Estate Agency Council, Lands Commission, the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA), the State Housing Company Ltd as well as the Ghana Tourism Development Company Ltd and Rent Control.

The major discussion point for this panel was rent control. Particularly, landlords requiring the payment of 1 -2 years of rent up-front, prior to a tenant moving in. A law is in force that allows the landlord to collect no more than 6 months of rent up-front, however it is not enforced. Therefore landlords continue the same practice regarding payment. This practice impacts local Ghanaians much more than diasporans, given the income for most Ghanaians.

Interestingly, a representative on this panel stated that a new law is being proposed to increase the up-front rent payment limit to one year, instead of 6 months. However, this new law does not help renters and invariably, it also will not be enforced.

Overall, the town hall meeting was very spirited. Ivy Prosper was stately in her presentation and served as a respectful and effective facilitator. However, despite the needed discourse, diasporans left the meeting without any real solutions to the concerns they addressed.