Thousand two hundred Ghanaians have benefitted from the visa waiver agreement between Ghana and Morocco, and have  travelled to Morocco between June and July this year.

Records from the Moroccan Embassy in Accra showed that  for the whole of  2024, about 1,500 Ghanaians travelled to Morocco.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration (MoFARI), Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa, who disclosed this in Accra yesterday said this was part of the outcome of a two-day working visit he made in early June this year to Morocco, in which the major highlight was a visa waiver agreement that the two countries signed.

He said based on the numbers, Morocco had informed Ghana that they were making arrangements to increase flights between Morocco and Ghana.

He said Ghana had reciprocated the gesture by putting in place similar measures for Moroccans to travel to Ghana visa-free, something which he said had come into effect.

Mr Ablakwa was speaking at the handing over of 2000 metric tonnes of fertiliser to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) for onward distribution to farmers.

The fertilisers are meant to support the country’s national agricultural efforts.

Additionally, Mr Ablakwa said based on the outcome of that working visit which included educational partnerships, Morocco had increased the number of scholarships that Ghanaian students were benefiting from.

He said Ghana, for its part,  had indicated its readiness to receive Moroccan students so that they could deepen ties at the young level in order that they would get to know each other better and have people-to-people engagement at that young age.

At the technical cooperation level, the minister said a team of experts in the scientific agricultural space had visited Ghana, and that they were in partnership with MOFA and other institutions in the country and the ultimate agenda, based on discussions that they had was for Ghana to collaborate with Morocco to establish a fertiliser production factory here in Ghana.

“We believe that diplomacy must be impactful and must be meaningful.

President Mohammed's charge to us is that in all our diplomatic engagements, we should think about the people, and we should think about how the people benefit from those diplomatic engagements. It should not end at just an  exchange of pleasantries, handshakes and photo opportunities.

All of that is nice, but what will be measured is how these diplomatic interactions impact the people positively, how they improve their welfare, and how they make their livelihoods better,” he said.

Donation

The Moroccan Ambassador to Ghana, Imane Ouaadil, said the fertiliser donation was another demonstration of Morocco's goodwill to strengthen the longstanding solidarity between Morocco and Ghana.

She said it was part and parcel of a longer and more holistic engagement aimed at nurturing and reinforcing  cooperation between the two countries based on trust and mutual benefit in line with the vision of the two  leaders of the country for intra-African, South-South cooperation and solidarity.

Expressing his gratitude for the fertilisers, Mr Dumelo appealed to Morocco to help Ghana to be very efficient in terms of irrigation and management of post-harvest losses, adding that the country lost about 30 to 40 per cent of whatever it produced to post-harvest losses.