Yes, with a permit. This is the point most often misunderstood: the ECOWAS Protocol on Free Movement lets a Nigerian enter Ghana with a passport and stay up to 90 days. It does not let anyone take a job or run a business here without the GIS’s permission. A Nigerian working in Ghana needs a work and residence permit, as anyone else does - at a lower fee.
| Nigerian (ECOWAS) | Most other nationals | |
|---|---|---|
| Entering | Passport only | E-visa or ETA |
| Work and residence permit, a year | $647 | $1,293 |
| Working without one | An offence | An offence |
The fees are the GIS’s, effective 15 May 2025, and are paid in cedis at the day’s rate.
Getting a job and the permit
The permit is applied for with an employer, who has to show the job needs someone who is not Ghanaian or is in short supply. In practice that favours skilled roles: engineering, teaching, health, finance, technology. Your employer files the application, and you supply:
- Your passport and passport photographs
- Your certificates, and for a profession, your registration with its Ghanaian regulator (the Medical and Dental Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the Ghana Bar)
- Your CV and the signed contract
- A police report from Nigeria, where asked
Under the GIPC Act a company also carries a quota of permits for foreign staff, which depends on the capital it has invested. A company that has used its quota needs approval to add another. — Work permits, in full
A permit that has expired is charged a penalty for every month it is out of date - $75 a month for an ECOWAS national. Renew before it lapses.
Working for yourself
Running your own business is allowed, but not in every trade. The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Act, 2013 (Act 865), section 27, keeps a list of activities for Ghanaians alone, including:
- Selling goods or services in a market, petty trading and hawking
- Taxi and car hire services below a fleet size
- Beauty salons and barber shops
- Selling phone credit scratch cards
- Retail of finished pharmaceutical products
- Making exercise books and sachet water
The list applies to every foreign national, ECOWAS or not. A Nigerian selling retail in a Ghanaian market is outside the law however long they have traded there.
Trading - buying and selling goods - is open to a foreign-owned company only with at least $1,000,000 in capital and 20 Ghanaians on the payroll. Other businesses need $200,000 with a Ghanaian partner, or $500,000 wholly foreign-owned. — Registering a business
Once you have the permit
- Get a non-citizen Ghana Card. Banks, networks and employers will ask for it. It costs $120 and is renewed with your permit. — The Ghana Card
- Register for SSNIT. Your employer deducts it from your salary like a Ghanaian’s. — SSNIT and pensions
- Your tax is PAYE, at the same rates as a Ghanaian resident. — Salary calculator