A standout initial deployment of Ghanaian nursing professionals to Antigua and Barbuda has prompted the Caribbean nation to formally request a second wave of health personnel, Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed in an official public statement dated November 6. The formal request emerged from high-level bilateral discussions between Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa and his Antigua and Barbuda counterpart E.P. Chet Greene, held on the sidelines of the recent Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. The first cohort of 120 Ghanaian nurses arrived in Antigua and Barbuda in January 2026, bound by three-year employment contracts designed to fill critical, longstanding staffing shortfalls in the island nation’s public healthcare system. Monitoring and feedback collected by Antiguan and Barbudan health authorities verified that the deployed nurses have delivered an impressive, tangible positive impact on local care delivery, exceeding initial stakeholder expectations and directly driving the push for more Ghanaian health staff. The Ghanaian foreign ministry’s public notice did not release granular details on the exact size of the requested additional health workforce, the full range of specialized medical roles that will be included in any future deployment, or a targeted timeline for when a second cohort might arrive in the Caribbean. Parallel to the health workforce collaboration, the two nations also finalized a landmark reciprocal visa waiver policy that applies to all categories of passport holders from both countries. Officials on both sides project this new visa exemption framework will unlock expanded growth in cross-border trade, boost two-way tourism flows, and deepen long-standing people-to-people cultural and social ties between the West African nation and the Caribbean twin-island state.
Antigua and Barbuda requests more Ghanaian health workers after first 120 nurses impress
