UAE Ambassador to Ghana, Amer Al-alwi has dismissed reports that Ghana has been slapped with a visa ban by the United Arab Emirates.

A report by DW Africa on Monday said the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced a visa ban on nationals from 20 African countries seeking to visit Dubai.

The Germany-based news outlet reported that the ban takes immediate effect and affected countries are Ghana, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Cameroon, Nigeria, Liberia, Burundi, Republic of Guinea, Gambia, Togo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, Benin, Ivory Coast, Congo, Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Comoros and Uganda.

However, Amer Al-alwi in an interview with JoyNews’ Samuel Mbura said the reports are mere rumours and unofficial.

“There is nothing official regarding or relating to the news. There is no official statement from my government or other government so the daily work routine is the same, nothing has changed until we find an official statement we cannot talk about it,” he said.

Meanwhile, he revealed that the UAE has adjusted its visa requirement for foreigners.

“We have adjusted the new visa system which is more flexible with the foreigner which makes the UAE easy to reach but for the ban, I can assure you we have no official statement about it,” he explained.

In September 2022, Nigeria’s foreign ministry announced that Nigerians under the age of 40 will no longer be issued tourist visas to the United Arab Emirates as the Emirati “introduced a new visa regime and has stopped issuing tourist visas to persons under the age of 40 years, except for those applying for family visas.”

African countries have recently received a travelling ban to UAE countries.

Emirates Airline announced on December 28, 2021, that eight African countries will not be accepted to travel to or through Dubai until further notice due to the spread of the Omicron Covid-19 variant.

The countries included: Ghana, Angola, Guinea, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Cote d’Ivoire and Ethiopia.