President Nana Akufo-Addo left Ghana on Thursday to begin a nine-day visit of the United States and Cuba.

His visit to America is to honour outstanding invitations extended to him to participate in public engagement programmes there.

The President will deliver speeches at the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University, and University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics.

He will also discuss investment opportunities in Ghana at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

President Akufo-Addo will meet with Rahm Emmanuel, former Chief of Staff to President Obama and currently the Mayor of Chicago, and also meet members of the Ghanaian community resident in Massachusetts and Chicago. 

The President will, then, pay a three-day official visit to Cuba, at the invitation of Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, President of the Councils of State and Cuban Ministers.

He is also scheduled to meet with Gen. Raúl Castro, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, and deliver a speech at the Law Faculty of the University of Havana.

The President was accompanied by the Foreign Affairs Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey; Education Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh; Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman Manu and officials of the Presidency and Foreign Affairs Ministry.

President Akufo-Addo will return to Ghana on Saturday.

In his absence, the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, shall, in accordance with Article 60(8) of the Constitution, act in his stead.