Ghana is rolling out policies to integrate the Caribbean and Africa as one bloc, turning the transatlantic crossing and the tragedy of history that tore one family apart into a bridge rather than a barrier, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has said.
Speaking at the Commonwealth Business Forum yesterday, Wednesday, November 4, 2026, on Africa and Caribbean integration, Mr Ablakwa stressed that the integration sought by the government is not a cultural aspiration or a matter of shared history, but a deliberate government policy backed by concrete proposals on trade, transport, ports and labour, to deliver jobs, opportunities and transformation on both sides of the Atlantic.
Proposals
The Minister outlined that in January next year, President John Dramani Mahama will chair the African Union, during which he will connect the African Continental Free Trade Area, the largest free market in the world with 55 AU member states, a population of 1.4 billion people, and a combined GDP in excess of $3 trillion, to the Caribbean Community.
"President Mahama is saying that let's expand it so that we don't only boost intra-Africa trade, but we can now trade with our Caribbean brothers and sisters," Mr Ablakwa said.
He said intra-regional trade figures were poor, below 10 per cent, and between some countries, including the 15 Caribbean states, the numbers were even poorer. "So the agenda is to expand the African Continental Free Trade Area. At the Foreign Ministry, we've looked at the legal options, and we believe that we can have an AU-CARICOM partnership to advance that," he said.
He added that institutions of the AU were already establishing in the Caribbean, like Afreximbank, which had so far invested about $700 million in very strategic projects in the region.
Beyond culture, transportation
Mr Ablakwa said the government had for years identified the need to bridge the gap and reunite the family between Africa and the Caribbean. "We have had PANAFEST, we have had a Year of Return, there have been a lot of cultural exchanges. We have worked together on reparative justice," he said. He pointed to the landmark UN resolution declaring transatlantic enslavement as the greatest crime against humanity as proof that Africa and the Caribbean knew how to work together and succeed.
Mr Ablakwa said Ghana was addressing trade routes and transportation, adding that with the revival of Ghana Airways next year, there will be a direct flight from Accra to the Caribbean. "We barely have direct transportation between Africa and the Caribbean. You cannot advance trade. You cannot advance the movement of your people if you are not able to have direct transportation. We are hoping that with the revival of Ghana Airways next year, we will have direct flights back to the Caribbean," he said.
He said Ghana had signed visa waiver agreements with virtually all CARICOM member states, but they were almost meaningless because travellers still needed a Schengen, UK or US visa just to transit. "And you know how difficult it is to secure these visas. They don't really mind that it's just a transit visa you want to get to your brothers and sisters in the Caribbean," he said.
He re-echoed a recent significant agreement Ghana and Jamaica signed, led on the Jamaican side by Foreign Minister Kamina Johnson Smith, for a major port agreement between the Port of Tema and the Port of Kingston in Jamaica. "And we believe that if we are able to implement this, then we see in practical terms how we are able to improve trade, how we are able to address the logistical gaps that exist," he said.
He added that Ghana had signed significant labour agreements and had been actively exporting nurses in particular to Jamaica, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda.
