Accra, Nov. 8, GNA – Dr Maulana Maulana, the founder, Ministry of the Future, a Non-Governmental Organisation has urged the government to grant citizenship status to Diaspora Ghanaians to enhance the development of the country.
Dr Maulana said Ghana could use the skills of the Diaspora as they would add value to the country’s socio-economic development.
He made the appealed in Accra at the weekend at a workshop organised by the organisation under the theme; “The Mathematics of Africa’s Future is linked to the African Diaspora.”
The Founder stated that giving the African Diaspora the right to return to the country would enable them to invest their resources in the country and boost the economy.
“When granted citizenship in Ghana, they will put their monies, finances worth billions of dollars into the economy and enhance national development”.
Dr Maulana said the NGO would love to see Ghana to be productive and great and that the country could not achieve this feat unless the African Diaspora was integrated by giving them the ‘right to return’.
He said many of the concerns raised by the participants at the workshop was the issues of having to renew their visas which he said was time-consuming and cost money and called for government interventions.
Dr Maulana said they were trying to foster unity within the African diaspora community through the workshop and that the organisation was the only NGO that sort to bring the African Diasporas together.
He commended the government’s social interventions in organizing the “Year of Return” adding that “what we want is to be integrated into the Ghanaian society.”
He said the local Ghanaians should not see the coming back of the Diasporas as a threat, stressing that “Africans of the diaspora are not coming here to do illegal mining, or exploit the resources, but are coming to invest because we love Ghana.”
Mr Abdul Aziz Adams, the Chief Executive Officer of the NGO in an Interview with the Ghana News Agency said the workshop was to galvanise and support the African Ghanaian Diaspora with their problems regarding their resettlement in the country.
He said the repatriates were coming home with a lot of substance and that there was the need for the government to create a conducive environment for them to feel at home.
He said they were coming home with many skills which could help the country reduce the cost of doing certain business by hiring their services instead of the whites who charge higher fees.
Dr Obedele Kambon, a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Ghana, urged Ghanaian to welcome them and support their initiatives to develop the country’s economy.
He said people were willing to come to Ghana to start building the “black nations” for its development.
GNA