In a statement on Thursday, South Africa grants Ghana visa-free entry, snubs Nigeria

Nigeria has not been included among the seven countries recently granted visa-free entry by South Africa.

This comes ahead of the country’s new e-visa system, which will be launched in November 2019.

In a statement on Thursday, South Africa’s Minister of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi, explained the development will boost tourism and contribute to the economy of the country.

“We do this by making life easier for our sister departments such as tourism to boost their tourism figures.

“Tourism will soar if we relax visa requirements for entry into South Africa. We know that Tourism is very important for job creation.

“Out of the 193 countries who are member states of the United Nations, the department has granted visa-free status to 75 countries. Of these 16 are on our continent and are SADC members and 59 are from all over the world.

“Today, we wish to announce an addition to our visa-free countries. These are: Qatar, United Arab Emirates, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Ghana, Sao Tome and Principe.

“We will immediately enter into discussions with them about how a visa-free regime will work. We still have some homework to do for 3 countries whose combined populations make up close to 30% of the world’s population i.e. China, India and Nigeria,” Motsoaledi said.

He, however, confirmed they will increase two times, the number of people who process visas to South Africa in Nigeria.