Keypoints:
- Evacuation cost reached $4.36m
- 1,964 Ghanaians returned home
- Private funding contributed $1.40m
GHANA spent GH¢49.72m ($4.36m) evacuating 1,964 citizens from South Africa following xenophobic attacks and anti-immigrant unrest, Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has disclosed.
The final account puts a price on a months-long emergency operation that expanded dramatically from the 300 citizens initially approved for evacuation in May and eventually became one of Ghana’s largest recent repatriation exercises.
Flights and welfare cost $3.41m
Speaking at a media briefing in Accra on September 7, Ablakwa said about GH¢38.84m (about $3.41m) was spent on chartered flights, airline tickets, ground transportation, feeding, hotel accommodation and medical and hospital costs in South Africa.
Another approximately GH¢10.80m (about $947,000) went towards reintegration grants and transportation allowances for returning citizens.
Each of the 1,964 evacuees received GH¢5,000 (about $439), as a reintegration payment and another GH¢500, roughly $44, for transportation.
That brought direct cash support for each returnee to GH¢5,500 (about $482).
The operation followed Ghana’s initial decision to evacuate 300 citizens as concerns grew over attacks and intimidation directed at African migrants.
Ibrahim Mahama contributed $1.40m
Ablakwa said the government itself financed GH¢33.72m of the total bill (about$2.96m).
Engineers & Planners, owned by Ghanaian businessman Ibrahim Mahama, contributed GH¢16m (about $1.40m) at the Bank of Ghana reference exchange rate.
The disclosure follows the government’s August decision to decline a GH¢20m assistance package from MTN Ghana, saying sufficient resources had already been secured for the evacuation and reintegration programme.
Ablakwa said all expenditure linked to the exercise had been settled and there were no outstanding liabilities.
Three deaths linked to crisis
The government also spent GH¢84,274 (about $7,400) repatriating the remains of two Ghanaians killed during the crisis.
The Foreign Ministry separately confirmed that another returnee died after arriving in Ghana, bringing the number of deaths associated with the evacuation exercise to three.
The final batch of 41 evacuees arrived at Accra International Airport on September 4, formally bringing the operation, which began in May, to an end.
Returnees have received medical screening, psychosocial support, health insurance registration, food assistance and other forms of reintegration support.
Xenophobia remains regional concern
The evacuation unfolded against mounting diplomatic pressure over recurring anti-foreigner violence in South Africa.
Ghana had already pressed the African Union to confront xenophobia, arguing that attacks on African nationals threatened continental integration and solidarity.
For Accra, attention now shifts from emergency repatriation to whether nearly 2,000 returnees can rebuild livelihoods after abandoning jobs, businesses and homes in South Africa.
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