The visit follows a special invitation extended by Mahama during his trip to Kenya on December 29, 2024.

While in Accra, Ruto will hold talks with Heads of State and Government, including President-Elect Mahama, focusing on key areas of mutual interest and cooperation, including trade, energy, oil, textiles, agriculture and diplomatic relations.

Kenya and Ghana share a long-standing, cordial relationship that dates back to the pre-independence era, with both countries drawing inspiration from each other’s liberation movements during their respective struggles for liberation, guided by the spirit of pan-Africanism.

Ruto will also use the visit to discuss reforms of the African Union that are aimed at improving institutional efficiency and strategic focus.

Additionally, he will express gratitude for Ghana’s support of Raila Odinga’s candidacy for the African Union Commission (AUC) chairperson position, while continuing to advocate for Odinga by highlighting his pan-African vision and proven leadership credentials.

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Addressing a press conference from his residence, Bawumia said he had called Mahama to congratulate him, adding that Mahama’s National Democratic Congress (NDC) also won the parliamentary election.

“Let me say that the data from our own internal collation of the election results indicate that former President John Dramani Mahama has won the Presidential election decisively,” Bawumia said.

“The NDC has also won the parliamentary election. Even though we await final collation of a number of seats, I believe ultimately these will not change the outcome.”

Bawumia said he conceded before the official results to ease tensions.

Before his concession, scuffles had been reported in several local constituency centres where results were still arriving from polling stations.

“I am making this concession speech before the official announcement by the Electoral Commission to avoid further tension and preserve the peace of our country,” Bawumia said.

“It is important that the world investor community continues to believe in the peaceful and democratic character of Ghana,” he added. “The people have voted for change at this time, and we respect that decision with all humility.”

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Police said four men were arrested at a polling station in the town of Nyankpala, where an opposition MP candidate had attempted to file a complaint but was stopped by ruling party supporters.

Soldiers have since been sent to Nyankpala in armoured vehicles to restore calm.

Elsewhere election day has been peacefully conducted, with some Ghanaians queuing before dawn to make sure they cast their ballots.

Polling centres officially closed at 17:00 GMT, and election results are expected to be announced on Tuesday.

Ghana’s land borders have been closed until Sunday evening, in a move that correspondents describe as unusual.

The West African nation is guaranteed a new president as Nana Akufo-Addo steps down after reaching the official limit of two terms in office.

But he could be replaced with a familiar face, if former President John Mahama succeeds in his comeback attempt for the NDC party.

His main challenger is expected to be Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia, who would become the country’s first Muslim leader if he wins for the governing NPP party.

Other candidates include Nana Kwame Bediako, a businessman popular with young voters and Alan Kyerematen, who defected from the ruling NPP party last year.

Close to 19 million Ghanaians are registered to vote.

Despite Ghana recently bringing in tougher legislation to drive up the numbers of women in frontline politics, only one woman is in the running to become president – Nana Akosua Sarpong Frimpomaa of the Convention People’s Party (CPP).

The only other female presidential candidate in this election – Akua Donkor of the Ghana Freedom Party – died in October. Yet her name will still be listed on ballot papers because the candidate chosen to succeed her was disqualified.

Saturday’s general election also sees voters in 275 constituencies across the country choosing their members of parliament.

Since the return of multi-party politics to Ghana in 1992, only candidates from either the National Democratic Congress (NDC) or the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) have won the presidency.

No party has ever won more than two consecutive terms in power.

In order to win in the first round, a presidential candidate must gain more than 50% of the vote. Failing that, the top two contenders will enter a run-off vote to take place by the end of December.

Voting for the first time, 18-year-old Serwaa Yeboah Joshebeth told the BBC “it is important for you to vote to choose the best for your country”.

The recent graduate wants to see more job opportunities, “not for me alone but for others who need them [too].”

Kojo Yeboah, 95, agrees.

“The next leader must focus on education and jobs for the youth,” the retired university worker told the BBC outside a polling booth in the city of Kumasi.

“I benefit from stipends from the state at my age already,” he adds.

As campaigns came to a close on Friday, Bawumia said of his main rival: “What is clear is that notwithstanding the challenges we’ve had, we have performed better than the government of John Dramani Mahama.”

While Mahama told supporters “it is a choice between the Ghana we have today and the Ghana we want together. A Ghana of opportunity, prosperity, and justice for all.”

Ghanaians have been hit particularly hard by inflation in recent years, which reached a peak of 54.1% in 2022. Although it has since come down, many thousands of people have been pushed into poverty and living standards have suffered, says the World Bank.

That same year, Ghana defaulted on its debt repayments and the government is still in lengthy negotiations with international lenders to try and restructure the loans.

Unemployment is also at a high – particularly among the young, whose views could have a big impact on the outcome of the election.

By BBC News

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On Monday – the US musical icon’s 74th birthday – he was granted citizenship of Ghana by the nation’s president.

“This is it, congratulations!” Nana Akufo-Addo told a beaming Wonder, handing the Grammy winner a certificate at a ceremony in the presidential palace where he was also presented with a birthday cake with a Ghanaian flag iced on top.

Wonder told the BBC that gaining Ghanaian nationality on his birthday was an “amazing thing”.

The superstar was born and bred in the US state of Michigan but has long had an affinity for Ghana – a West African nation thousands of miles from home.

In 1975, with a string of hit albums behind him, Wonder openly expressed a desire to quit music and move to Ghana. He believed his ancestral lineage could be traced there, reports say.

Wonder stuck with singing and stayed stateside, but after headlining a Ghanaian music festival in the 1990s, he again expressed a desire to set up home there.

On a later trip to Ghana, Wonder wrote the entirety of his album Conversation Peace and in an interview just three years ago the star said he was moving to Ghana in order to escape racial injustice in the US.

Wonder’s love affair with the country was ignited by the people he met whilst there.

He told the BBC that one of these encounters was with late Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings, who in the 1990s hosted him at the presidential residence.

“I remember the late President Rawlings, who allowed me to be a co-pilot on a flight,” Wonder said.

“I was able to fly with him from one end of Ghana to the other end. The north to the south, and it was amazing.”

Flanked by his family and donning a scarf made of traditional kente cloth, Wonder was visibly delighted to have finally become Ghanaian.

Ghana has long prided itself on being a bastion of pan-Africanism – its founding leader, Kwame Nkrumah, called the West African state a “Black Mecca”.

Wonder is just the latest African-American icon to celebrate this message – writer W E B Du Bois moved to Ghana and was buried there in 1963, while Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali all paid high-profile visits to the country to reconnect with their African roots.

In 2001, Ghana became the first nation on the continent to give the descendants of Africans the right to stay.

Since then, Africans in the diaspora have been able to live and work in Ghana without renewing their visas or work permits.

And in 2019 the Ghanaian government launched the “year of return” initiative to encourage Africans in the diaspora to relocate there.

More than 300 Africans in diaspora have been granted Ghanaian citizenship since.

In a statement, Ghana’s interior ministry said Wonder becoming a citizen “marks a significant milestone in the country’s efforts to attract diasporan Africans and recognise outstanding contributions to the African diaspora”.

The man himself said he now plans to engage in initiatives that will create great job opportunities for Ghana’s youth, who make up roughly 38% of the population.

“The youngest generation is in Africa. We need to begin to think about how their greatness can shine,” he said.

By BBC News

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President William Ruto said the MoUs, including some signed by business associations from Kenya and Ghana, are aimed at facilitating trade and investment between the two nations.

The goal, he said, is to expand opportunities for business, the private sector and peoples of the two nations.

Other MoUs include cooperation in science and technology, tourism, education, governance and defence.

“During my discussions with President Nana Akufo-Addo, we have noted that these agreements are significant in the evolution of our diplomatic ties, which stand on warm and cordial, dynamic and impactful historic collaboration,” he said.

He made the remarks during a press conference at President Akufo-Addo’s office after the two leaders held talks during President Ruto’s State Visit to Ghana.

Ruto commended Ghana’s decision to remove visa requirements for all Africans by the end of the year, a move aimed at enhancing the continent’s integration.

“This commitment aligns with one of the goals of the African Continental Free Trade Area to create a single market in the continent and to drive economic growth, job creation and poverty eradication,” he said.

Kenya, too, did away with visa requirements for visitors from all countries in January this year.

Ruto pointed out that the free movement of people has contributed to growth in trade, investment and tourism between Kenya and Ghana.

He said the two nations will use the opportunities provided by the Africa Continental Free Trade to further boost trade between Kenya and Ghana.

“President Akufo-Addo and I are encouraged that under the Africa Continental Free Trade Area, our two countries have taken bold measures to explore these opportunities,” he said.

In October 2022, the President flagged off the inaugural shipment of Kenyan tea from Nairobi to Ghana.

“On 23rd September, 2023, Kenyan-made Chloride Exide batteries worth about KSh9.3 million landed in the Ghanaian Port of Tema, while Little Cab, a taxi-hailing service from Kenya, is now also operational in Ghana,” he added.

Ruto said the two nations are determined to collaborate in tackling internal conflicts, wars, terrorism and violent extremism, aiming to safeguard peace and stability and thus promote regional development.

“It has become clear in our discussions that we have to redouble our efforts to silence the guns in Africa as a vital condition for economic growth,” he said.

The President said through the unity of African leadership, the continent stands a better chance of effectively implementing its climate action agenda.

He said the first-ever Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi last September served as a platform for the African leadership to define a clear common position in the global climate action discourse in the run up to COP28 last December and beyond.

The two leaders also discussed institutional reforms at the African Union aimed at making the continental organization fit-for-purpose and for the effective implementation of Agenda 2063.

This includes the need to restructure the African Union organs, conclude the division of labour between the AU Commission Organs, Specialized Agencies and Regional Economic Communities, as well as the need to streamline the agenda of the Pan-African Parliament to cover strategic issues.

Akufo-Addo committed to support Kenya’s candidature for the position of Chairperson of the African Union Commission 2025-2028.

At the same time, Ruto assured Ghana of Kenya’s support for the candidature of Ms Shirley Botchwey, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, for the position of Commonwealth Secretary-General for the period 2024-2029.

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Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Musalia Mudavadi announced the visit as he arrived in Accra on Monday evening.

This will be Ruto’s first visit to Ghana since he took over the presidency in September 2022.

He will meet the host Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo during his visit.

Kenya and Ghana are expected to sign bilateral agreements in areas of shared interests, including trade and investment, education and research, public service, and capacity building.

Mudavadi was received at the Kotoka International Airport by Kenya High Commissioner to Ghana, Eliphas Barine.

In March 2023, Ghana announced its plans to boost its business relations with Kenya by tapping into the AfCFTA through the setting up of an Export Trade House (ETH).

In September 2022, Kenya shipped its first consignment of locally made batteries to Ghana, two months after it was picked among seven countries to pilot the continental free trade area that seeks to unlock the movement of goods and services in Africa.

Kenya Exports to Ghana was $10.3 million (Sh1.4 billion) in 2021, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade.

The main products that Ghana exported to Kenya in the same period were cocoa powder, rubber and other live plants, cuttings and slips, and mushroom spawn.

Kenya is making efforts to open markets in the region.

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“The bill would also undermine Ghana’s valuable public health, media and civic spaces, and economy,” the US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.

It has called for the “review of the constitutionality of the bill”.

The new bill passed on Wednesday imposes a prison sentence of up to three years for anyone convicted of identifying as LGBTQ+. It also imposes a maximum five-year jail term for forming or funding LGBTQ+ groups.

The passing of the bill has been criticised by rights organisations and other groups.

Rightify Ghana strongly condemned “this regressive legislation, which poses a grave threat to the rights and freedoms of LGBTQ+ individuals in the country”.

UNAids executive director Winnie Byanyima said the bill, if it becomes law, could incite violence by Ghanaians against their fellow citizens.

She said that it will “obstruct access to life-saving services, undercut social protection, and jeopardise Ghana’s development success.”

The bill will be presented to President Nana Akufo-Addo after which he’ll have seven days to sign it into law or refuse to assent to it, according to Ghana’s constitution.

By BBC News

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It also imposes a maximum five-year jail term for forming or funding LGBTQ+ groups.

Lawmakers heckled down attempts to replace prison sentences with community service and counselling.

It is the latest sign of growing opposition to LGBTQ+ rights in the conservative West African nation.

The bill, which had the backing of Ghana’s two major political parties, will come into effect only if President Nana Akufo-Addo signs it into law.

He previously said that he would do so if the majority of Ghanaians want him to.

Gay sex is already against the law in Ghana – it carries a three-year prison sentence.

Last month human rights organizations warned that the bill “poses significant threats to the fundamental rights and freedoms” of LGBTQ+ people.

Activists fear there will now be witch-hunts against members of the LGBTQ+ community and those who campaign for their rights, and say some will have to go into hiding.

This was echoed by the head of the UN body tackling Aids, Winnie Byanyima, who said: “If Human Sexual rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill becomes a law, it will exacerbate fear and hatred, could incite violence against fellow Ghanaian citizens, and will negatively impact on free speech, freedom of movement and freedom of association.”

She added that it would “obstruct access to life-saving services” and “jeopardize Ghana’s development success”.

The bill proposes a jail term of up to 10 years for anyone involved in LGBTQ+ advocacy campaigns aimed at children.

It also encourages the public to report members of the LGBTQ+ community to authorities for “necessary action”.

MPs said the bill was drafted in response to the opening of Ghana’s first LGBTQ+ community centre in the capital, Accra, in January 2021.

Police shut the centre following public protests, and pressure from religious bodies and traditional leaders in the largely Christian nation.

At the time, the Christian Council of Ghana and the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council said in a joint statement that being LGBTQ+ was “alien to the Ghanaian culture and family value system and, as such, the citizens of this nation cannot accept it”.

The bill approved by lawmakers is a watered-down version of an earlier draft – for instance, jail terms have been shortened and a controversial clause on conversion therapy has been removed.

During the days-long debate, the deputy parliamentary leader of the governing party, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, suggested further changes.

He said lawmakers should decide, via a secret ballot, whether people convicted of being members of the LGBTQ+ community should be imprisoned by the courts or ordered to do community service and undergo counselling.

However, he was heckled into submission by lawmakers who supported prison sentences.

By Agencies

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