Foreign Minister Ablakwa is visiting Washington this week to try to salvage deteriorating ties.
Ghana has dispatched its top diplomat to Washington to present a clean slate as PresidentJohn Mahama vows to deliver on his promise to reverse the perceived corruption of his predecessor, Nana Akufo-Addo.
Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa is on a delicate mission to persuade the Donald Trumpadministration not to move forward with its threat to add Ghana to its list of countries facing a visa ban due to “vetting and screening concerns”, several sources tell The Africa Report.
He met on Monday 30 June with new Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker and Acting Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Troy Fitrell.
“We focused on strengthening the U.S.-Ghana partnership and commercial and immigration issues important to both of our countries,” Hooker wrote on X late Monday evening.
Travel woes
Travel restrictions would be particularly damaging to the West African country, which received $4.6bn in remittances from the US in 2023 (more than any other African country save for Nigeria), according to the World Bank. Ghana also sent 9,394 students to study in the United States in 2023–2024, making it the country with the 18th largest student contingent, according to the Institute of International Education.
The foreign minister is notably expected to check in on progress at the Ghanaian embassy, which he shut down at the end of May amid revelations that a Ghanaian local hire had skimmed money from visa fees for years. Visa requests are now backed up for six months as a result, says Adjoa Kyerematen, president and CEO of the Ghana Diaspora Public Affairs Collective in Washington, DC.
“Mahama’s government is wanting to move quickly to shut down the impropriety that was going on and to strengthen Ghana’s case against any kind of visa restrictions,” Kyerematen says.
This is the foreign minister’s first publicly known visit to the US since taking office in February, following Mahama’s December election. Kyerematen was not aware of any public appearances on his schedule. The foreign minister did not respond to a text seeking comment.
Debt troubles
Beyond the visa issue, Ghana is also under fire in Washington over its unpaid debt obligations accrued under the previous administration. The country secured a $3bn bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2023, but its failure to reimburse American creditors has angered some powerful policymakers.
“Reform is essential — but so is Ghana finally honouring its debts,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch said on X on 27 June. He was responding to an article from The Africa Report outlining the Ghanaian parliament’s approval of a $2.8bn debt restructuring framework with 25 creditor countries.
Ghana still owes American businesses $330m in arrears, backed by US taxpayers, and continues to default on $132m in bilateral debt, including to the US Export-Import Bank, the Idaho Republican said.
“Ghana may be a key regional partner, but its financial recklessness is unacceptable,” Risch said on X. “US taxpayers and businesses shouldn’t keep bailing it out — including through the IMF and World Bank. It’s time to demand accountability.”
I now recommend that the United States Executive Director to the IMF… formally request that a specific portion of the next IMF disbursement to Ghana be explicitly directed towards settling outstanding payments
The so-called Brooke Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 prevents the provision of new aid to countries that are in default on their US loans, but the president can waive those restrictions. The Treasury Department did not respond to a request about any plans to do so in Ghana’s case.
Risch has been pressing the US Treasury Department since last December to oppose further IMF disbursements unless US firms are prioritised. The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Florida Republican Brian Mast, wrote his own letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessenton 10 April with the same message.
Among Independent Power Producers (IPPs) that the government of Ghana owes payments to “are two power generation facilities owned by US pension funds and the US taxpayer”, Mast said.
“I now recommend that the United States Executive Director to the IMF… formally request that a specific portion of the next IMF disbursement to Ghana be explicitly directed towards settling outstanding payments owed to the IPPs,” Mast said. “I believe such a measure is essential to keeping American investors interested in Ghana, addressing the ongoing financial strain on IPPs and ensuring the stability of Ghana’s power sector.”
China in the wings
Kyerematen, however, urges patience with the new government as it gets its bearings.
“This administration is only six months old,” she says. “I would hope that Congressman Mast and Senator Risch could articulate what sort of metrics of success or what are they expecting to have been done at this period of time before placing restrictions.”
Tightening the screws on the country could backfire as Mahama woos Chinese investors, hosting a Ghana-China Business Summit last week in Accra, she adds.
“Looming over all of this is the fact that Ghana is a strategic regional ally, in a landscape that is increasingly anti-West,” she says. “So the timing of all this is not great optically for the US to be threatening this.”
cc: the African report
