Nigeria has convinced the Ghanaian authorities to rescind its recent policy which compelled Nigerians doing business in Ghana to pay a minimum capital of $300,000 or have their businesses closed.
Ademola Onafowokan, the Nigerian High Commissioner in Ghana, disclosed this to journalists that accompanied President Goodluck Jonathan on his trip to Accra for the funeral of late Ghanaian President, John Atta Mills.
The controversial capital base requirement had caused a lot problems as Nigerian businessmen, under the auspices of Nigerian Union of Traders Association in Ghana (NUTAG) and the Eagle Circle Traders, implored the federal government back home to intervene and stop what they alleged to be gross discrimination and unfair trade laws contrary to the tenets of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Onafowokan said the Nigerian High Commission had stepped in and succeeded in halting the policy. “Ghana, just like Nigerian, welcomes foreigners; so let us quickly remove the erroneous impression that Ghanaians are trying to drive Nigerians away like we did to ourselves in the past,” he said. “That is not happening at all. Since I came here, I have been on top of the incident. I have spoken extensively on it and I have had the course to meet with members of NUTAG here, calm them down, that this is a borrowed home and not our own home.
The problem that we are not focusing on is that we Nigerians ourselves have a lot to do to educate ourselves and educate our people from home. The National Orientation Agency should do a good job. When people come from Nigeria across the border to this place they don’t have passports and this people are saying go and regularise your stay before you can do business; and you don’t want to do it, but you want to do it by force and you are saying ECOWAS.”
According to him, Ghanaian authorities admit that Nigeria is the country’s second biggest provider of foreign direct investment and would not jeopardise the bilateral relations between both countries.
“But the same time, when you go to somebody’s place, you have to learn to conform,” he said. “A few of them do not have the necessary papers and how can your regularise your stay without the necessary papers? And they know your shops, so that is a major cause and we are glossing over it. We are rather interested in they want to send this people away, but why did you come in without the necessary papers and why do you not want to get the necessary papers after 3months? We have spoken to the Nigerian community and they said they are doing something about it so that they can face their lives and their business.”
The high commissioner also disclosed that the population of Nigerians in the country is estimated to be as high as 3 million.