Ghana’s Ambassador to South Korea, Kojo Choi, has marked his first year in office with a frank assessment of his tenure, highlighting a historic visa waiver and a long-stalled climate agreement as key wins — while admitting the real work of turning diplomacy into jobs and investment is only just beginning.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, October 11, 2026, Choi said his first year had been about “putting Ghana where Ghana belongs: At The Table”. But he was clear that year two must deliver tangible benefits. “The first year was about opening doors, rebuilding relationships, raising Ghana’s visibility and creating platforms,” he wrote. “The second year must be about walking through those doors”.
The centrepiece of Choi’s first year was the visa waiver agreement signed in June 2026 by Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa and his South Korean counterpart, Cho Hyun, on the sidelines of the Korea-Africa Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Seoul. The deal — the first of its kind in nearly 50 years of formal Ghana-South Korea relations — exempts holders of diplomatic and service passports from visa requirements. Ablakwa described it as “an important first step,” adding that the next phase would bring ordinary passport holders on board. Choi confirmed that negotiations to extend the waiver to all Ghanaian travellers were ongoing.
The agreement was a direct outcome of President John Dramani Mahama’s state visit to South Korea in March 2026, which Choi credited with breaking through issues that had been “stuck for more than a decade”. During that visit, the two governments signed three memoranda of understanding covering climate change cooperation, maritime security, and digital technology.
On the climate front, Choi announced that the Ghana-Korea Climate Change Agreement had been concluded, paving the way for potential projects, technology transfer, and investment once the ratification process is completed. The framework, initialled on the sidelines of COP28 in Dubai in December 2023, will enable both countries to implement international greenhouse gas reduction projects under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. South Korea’s Ambassador to Ghana, Park Kyongsig, has said Korean private sector investors are “waiting for the agreement to be signed so that they can invest in Ghana so that the country can get carbon credits”.
Choi also revealed that the embassy was in talks with South Korea’s labour, justice, and immigration authorities to open routes for Ghanaian workers into the Korean job market — though he gave no timeline.
The ambassador highlighted Ghana’s participation in major diplomatic engagements, including the Korea-Africa Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and the Korea-Africa Finance Ministers’ Conference in Seoul. He noted that South Korea had supported Ghana’s resolution at the United Nations on the historical injustice of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade.
Beyond high-level diplomacy, Choi said much of his first year was spent rebuilding ties with the Ghanaian community in South Korea. The embassy restored Ghana’s National Day celebration after an absence of almost eight years, held its first Joint Worship and Thanksgiving Service, and revived the Ambassador’s Town Hall Meeting. Choi also attended the 30th anniversary celebration of GHANASKO in Paju, which drew more than 400 Ghanaians.
Choi’s path to the ambassadorship is anything but conventional. Born Choi Seung-eop in 1977 in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, he moved to Ghana in 1992 with his missionary parents and settled in the West African nation. He attended the University of Ghana Business School, built a career as an entrepreneur — founding the telecommunications firm Nana Telecom and later the fintech company FaceSwitch — and acquired Ghanaian nationality in 2015. He was listed in the Ghana Business Hall of Fame.
His appointment as Ghana’s ambassador to South Korea in 2025 drew public debate in Ghana over his citizenship, though legal commentators concluded he met the requirements for the post. Choi later admitted the controversy “weighed heavily” on him, but said it was the stories of his childhood in Ghana and his family’s missionary service that gradually shifted public opinion.
“Serving in Korea as Ghana’s ambassador is one of the most special and honorable moments of my life,” he said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency. “My love for, and understanding of, Africa is deeply rooted in who I am”.
Choi presented his credentials to South Korean President Lee Jae-myung on December 11, 2025, becoming the first Korean-born diplomat to serve as an African nation’s ambassador to South Korea.
Looking ahead, Choi said his second year would focus on turning diplomatic engagements into tangible benefits — increased investment, jobs, trade, technology transfer, and educational opportunities. He plans to travel more frequently between Ghana and South Korea to connect opportunities identified in Korea with institutions and businesses in Ghana.
As Ghana and South Korea prepare to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2027, Choi’s message is clear: the doors are open. Now, he says, it’s time to walk through them.
