At the 2026 Study in Europe Fair, Minister of Education Haruna Iddrisu appealed to EU countries to adopt a more generous approach to granting visas for Ghanaian students seeking opportunities abroad. He said easier access to international education would enable students to acquire valuable knowledge and skills that could contribute to national development when they return home.
“I have a simple message to the EU and our EU partners: be more friendly and generous in granting visas to our students who want opportunities to study abroad, acquire knowledge and return to serve Mother Ghana and the world. What we want is for you to be more friendly and more generous,” he urged.
Iddrisu also stressed that Ghana’s scholarship system should prioritise deserving students and the country’s future manpower needs rather than political connections and favouritism. He called on the Scholarship Authority to identify critical skills that Ghana will need, such as artificial intelligence, and collaborate with the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to align scholarship awards with those priorities.
He further called for diligence and transparency in assessing scholarship applicants to ensure that deserving candidates benefit from the opportunities. “We need to identify as a country our manpower needs into the future and direct scholarships towards developing those future talents for the future of our country. It must be a collaborative effort between GETFund and the Scholarship Authority to identify who deserves what and when,” he said.
Ghana’s education ministry hopes that a more open visa regime will help students gain international experience and bring back skills that will drive the nation’s growth. The EU’s response to the appeal remains to be seen.
