Ghana has begun to offer visas on arrival to citizens of all 54 African Union member states. Ghana is now the third country in the continent after Mauritius and Rwanda to allow visas on arrival for all Africans. Ghana’s new visa policy is big news in Africa because travelling in the continent is not easy for Africans. “Nationals from African …

General elections will be held in Ghana on 7 December 2016 to elect a President and Members of Parliament. They had originally been scheduled for 7 November 2016, but the date was later rejected by Parliament. “Despite the demonstration of our preparedness to deliver a credible and world-class elections on the proposed November 7 date, parliament in its wisdom has …

Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation Europe (NIDOE) held a two-day event in Vienna in July to promote the Nigeria tourism sector. The event was declared open by the Chargé d’Affaires of the Nigerian Embassy in Austria, Gazing Dangtim, after a welcome address by the NIDOE Austria chair, Oluyemi Ogundele, who said: “Nigeria could generate foreign exchange, provide employment and accelerate rural …

British Muslims are the most generous charity-givers, according to the UK’s Charity Commission, which says Muslims gave about £100 million to charities over the month of Ramadan alone. The news confirms Muslims’ reputation as being the most generous religious group when it comes to charitable donations. The Charity Commission’s Nick Donaldson described the £100 million as being the equivalent of …

Tom Skye, a frequent visitor to Côte d’Ivoire and the author of a travel book on the country, writes on the evolution of Ivorian music, tracing the roots of its modern expression to its very distant past. Music is everywhere in Côte d’Ivoire. It’s played and performed on buses, trains, beaches and football pitches, and in bars, restaurants, workplaces and …

How Africa can learn from Germany’s successful ongoing transition to renewable energy was the theme of the 10th German-African Energy Forum, which took place recently in Hamburg, reports Femi Awoniyi. Willi Meixner, chief executive of the Power and Gas Division of Siemens AG, has advised African countries to focus on creating an encouraging regulatory environment if they are to attract …

The journey has been an arduous one. The historian Paulette Reed-Anderson informs us that in 1682, a ship bearing slaves from Africa docked in Hamburg. Twenty-five years later (1707), African musicians are employed in Prussian military units and Mohrenstrasse is christened in Berlin. By 1877, however, the first of the dreadful Völkerschauen (‘ethnographic exhibitions’) were staged in Hamburg and Berlin.  …

Charles Mohamed Huber, MP (Bundestag)  The former TV actor (59) was born in the Bavarian city of Munich to a Senegalese father and a German mother. Huber, who represents the western city of Darmstadt in the Federal Parliament, was the first Black actor in a national TV series, “Der Alte”, where he played the inspector Henry Johnson. The member of …

As the European Union threatens to unravel in the wake of Britain’s vote to leave, the African Union is pursuing a path of closer integration through the launch of a common passport that will grant visa-free access to all 54 member states, reports Tolani Alao (NAN). The long-awaited African Union (AU) passport was launched on Sunday, 17 July at the …

Africa’s future rests in the hands of its youth – and every effort must be made to ensure they thrive, philanthropist and entrepreneur Bill Gates said in South Africa on Sunday, 17 July. Delivering the 2016 Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture at the University of Pretoria (Mamelodi campus), Gates said he was optimistic about the future of the continent – because …