Nigeria and Ghana are both in ECOWAS, so a Nigerian needs no visa: a Nigerian passport, and a yellow fever card, are enough to enter and stay up to 90 days. Everything after that - a job, a lease, a bank account, a SIM in your own name - has its own paperwork, and most of it runs through a non-citizen Ghana Card.
Getting in
- Your passport, valid for at least 6 months, which is the document every border post accepts.
- A yellow fever certificate. It is checked at Kotoka and at the borders. — Vaccines and the yellow fever card
- By air, Lagos and Abuja to Accra are short flights. — Flying into Accra
- By road, the coast road crosses Benin and Togo and enters Ghana at Aflao. Each border is a passport stamp. Carry the yellow fever card, and keep every receipt for anything you pay.
The stamp gives you up to 90 days. Staying longer, working or studying needs a permit from the GIS. — Residence permits
Working
Free entry is not free work. A job needs a work and residence permit, filed with your employer, at the ECOWAS fee of $647 a year. Running a market stall or petty trading is reserved for Ghanaians by law. — Can a Nigerian work in Ghana?
The non-citizen Ghana Card
Resident foreigners register with the NIA for a non-citizen Ghana Card. It costs $120 and follows your residence permit. You will be asked for it to open a bank account, to register a SIM, and by most employers. — The Ghana Card
A phone number
Until you have the card, a SIM can be registered on your passport at the network’s own office. MTN, Telecel and AT all have offices in central Accra. Nigerian numbers roam, expensively; a local SIM costs almost nothing. — SIM cards and internet
Money
The naira and the cedi do not trade directly at any bank in a useful way. Most people move money one of three ways:
- A transfer app that pays out in cedis to a Ghanaian bank account or mobile money wallet. Check what you lose to the rate with the rate checker. — Rate checker
- Dollars, changed at a licensed forex bureau in Accra. Cash over $10,000 must be declared at the border.
- Mobile money once you are here, which is how most daily payments in Accra are made. — Mobile money
Street changers at the borders and in town are where most people who lose money lose it.
A Ghanaian bank account needs the non-citizen Ghana Card or a passport with a residence permit, and proof of address. — Opening a bank account
A place to live
Landlords in Accra usually ask for one to two years’ rent in advance, which is more than the Rent Act allows and is what nearly everyone pays anyway. Budget for it before you arrive. — Rent advances — What rent costs in Accra
What will feel familiar, and what will not
The food is close enough to argue about. Jollof is the argument. Ghana’s pidgin is related to Nigeria’s but not the same, and Twi, not English, is the language of most markets and trotros. — Twi and Ga phrasebook
The okada is as common as in Lagos, and in Ghana still illegal as a taxi. — Trotros and getting around