Get Ghana's neighbours to also open their borders - Dzifa Gomashie to President
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ketu South, Dzifa Gomashie has appealed to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to prevail on Ghana's neighbours to also open their land borders after Ghana opened its borders on Monday.
In a radio interview with Accra based Citi FM, the MP said the opening of the Aflao border for instance was very welcome news to her constituents whose livelihoods depend greatly on trading activities at the border.
Ghana opened its land and sea borders on Monday [March 28, 2022], two years after COVID-19 travel restrictions were imposed.
Besides, the wearing of face masks is no longer mandatory.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo announced this in his 28th update on Ghana’s enhanced response to the COVID-19 pandemic delivered Sunday night.
President Akufo-Addo explained that fully vaccinated travellers would be allowed entry through the land and sea borders without a negative PCR test result from the country of origin.
He said Ghana had reached a critical point in its fight against COVID-19 and the government had undertaken a comprehensive review of the raft of measures instituted to help win the fight against the virus.
“This review is premised on the background of rapidly declining infections, the relative success of the vaccination campaign being supervised by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the increased capacity developed in the public and private health sectors over the last two years,” he said.
Read also: Ghana opens borders: Face mask no longer mandatory - Akufo-Addo
Ketu South MP's reaction
Reacting in the radio interview with Citi FM, the Ketu South MP said: "I think it [announcement] should have come out clearer on what the others [neighbours] are doing and whether it is a collective decision, or it is only his [President Akufo-Addo].
"And what he is going to do if the others are not opening. It is good news but it is not comprehensive enough for me," Dzifa Gomashie said.
“We were excited when the announcement was made. What wasn’t clear to me however was whether Akufo-Addo was speaking as the President of the Republic only or also as the Chairman of ECOWAS.”
”My concern is because he may open his side of the border, but are the neighboring towns also opening theirs? We need further clarifications on whether or not the reopening of the border is a collective decision. If not what steps have been taken to ensure their neighboring countries comply.”
Neighbours yet to open borders
Reports suggest that even though the Ghana borders at Elubo and Aflao opened on Monday as announced by the President, that of Ivory Coast and Togo were yet to open on Monday.