The Centre for Migration Studies is calling on the government to address policy incoherence in the national policy which it says is affecting the smooth implementation of the ECOWAS free movement policy on migration.
According to the centre, which has identified a number of inconsistencies with trade restrictions put on nationals of member states, these restrictions is a violation of the ECOWAS policy.
In a Citi News interview, Professor Mariam Awumbila, a lecturer at the University of Ghana Centre for Migration Studies, called on the government to ensure the free movement policy is not violated.
“The ECOWAS protocol in itself guarantees that if you are a citizen of a member state you have the right of entry, right of establishment but unfortunately some of Ghana’s laws prohibit people who are not citizens from working in the country in areas such as petty trading, producing industrial goods on small scale.”
“A certain capital level is prescribed and if you are a non-Ghanaian, you are not expected to go into that area. So that is an area of contradiction we need to work on and it’s not only Ghana but other countries are also doing same which is not encouraging”.
“If you are an ECOWAS citizen, you must be allowed to work in any area only if you meet all the requirements of being law abiding. So we need to work on this incoherence because the ECOWAS and AU should override all national policies and I believe a lot of education needs to also be done for people to understand that we have signed an agreement to be part of the policy.”
