The minister's announcement came in the wake of President Nana Akufo-Addo's launch in December of a new initiative named "Beyond the Return, The Diaspora Dividend". The Year of Return initiative included a massive marketing campaign targeting African Americans and the diaspora by advertising Ghana as a tourism destination with trans-Atlantic trade appeal. The Ghana Tourism Authority projected that a total of 500,000 diasporans would visit the nation over the course of the year, 350,000 of whom would arrive from North America. Moreover, figures from the Ghana Immigration Service indicated that the percentage of Americans arriving in Ghana reached their highest-ever rate between January and September 2019, increasing by 26 percent. The undoubted success of the Year of Return has sparked discussions over whether the initiative should continue indefinitely.

Source: GhanaWeb January 29, 2020 03:11 UTC