Ghanaian Nurses Could Work in Ohio Under New U.S. Partnership: What We Know

Ghana and the City of Columbus, Ohio, have signed a new agreement designed to create formal employment pathways for qualified Ghanaian nurses in USA healthcare facilities, starting with opportunities connected to Columbus and the wider Ohio healthcare market.

The agreement is significant, but it does not mean Ghanaian nurses can immediately apply for guaranteed U.S. jobs. The Memorandum of Understanding establishes the Ghana-Columbus Nursing Partnership Programme, a framework through which recruitment, professional development, healthcare collaboration and legal migration pathways can be developed.

As of September 22, 2026, the public announcements reviewed by GhanaCitizenship.com do not provide an official application portal, recruitment start date, number of available nursing positions, salary schedule, participating hospital list or the specific U.S. immigration route that will be used.

For Ghanaian nurses interested in working in the United States, here is what has actually been announced, what U.S. requirements may still apply, and what applicants should watch for next.

What Ghana and Columbus Signed

On September 14, 2026, representatives of Ghana and the City of Columbus signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the Michael B. Coleman Government Center in Columbus, Ohio.

The agreement establishes the official Ghana-Columbus Nursing Partnership Programme.

Ghana was represented by Minister for Health Kwabena Mintah Akandoh and Minister for Labour, Jobs and Employment Emmanuel Kwadwo Agyekum. Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther signed on behalf of the city.

The partnership was facilitated with support from organizations including Buckeye Africa Exchange, StrideHx and Columbus Sister Cities International.

It builds on a sister-city relationship between Columbus and the Greater Accra Region that dates to 2015.

According to reports on the signing, one of the central goals is to create a formal pathway through which qualified Ghanaian nurses can legally enter Ohio’s healthcare workforce.

What Is the Ghana-Columbus Nursing Partnership Supposed to Do?

The agreement is broader than simply recruiting nurses from Ghana.

Officials said the partnership is expected to support nursing education, workforce development, skills transfer, healthcare institutional development, research and health innovation.

The employment component is likely to attract the most immediate attention because it could create a government-backed structure connecting qualified Ghanaian healthcare workers with employers in Ohio.

This distinction matters. An MoU can create the institutional framework for a recruitment program without immediately creating vacancies that applicants can apply for.

Are Applications Open for Ghanaian Nurses to Work in Ohio?

There is no official application portal identified in the public announcements reviewed for this article.

The September announcement establishes the partnership, but the reports do not provide a public recruitment form, application deadline or step-by-step application process.

That means nurses should be cautious about websites, WhatsApp groups, social media accounts or private recruiters claiming that they can already guarantee placement under the Ghana-Columbus program.

When recruitment officially begins, applicants should look for information published by the Ghana Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labour, Jobs and Employment, the City of Columbus or organizations formally identified as participants in the partnership.

Until those details are released, nurses should not assume that paying an individual or recruitment company gives them access to the program.

What Requirements Could Ghanaian Nurses Face?

The Ghana-Columbus agreement does not eliminate U.S. nursing licensure or immigration requirements.

Foreign-educated nurses who want to practice in the United States normally have to satisfy several separate systems. These can include professional credential verification, state nursing licensure requirements and federal immigration screening.

The exact process for participants in the new Ghana-Columbus program has not yet been published, so applicants should not assume that every requirement used in ordinary U.S. nurse migration will apply in exactly the same way.

However, the existing U.S. framework provides a useful indication of the documentation nurses may need to prepare.

CGFNS International, an organization approved by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to conduct federal credential screening for certain foreign healthcare professionals, states that its VisaScreen process can require verification of professional education, nursing licenses and registrations, nursing knowledge and English-language competency.

This means nurses considering the program should keep their academic transcripts, professional registration records, identification documents and other nursing credentials organized and current.

Will Ghanaian Nurses Need the NCLEX-RN?

The Ghana-Columbus announcement does not say whether applicants must already have passed the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses, commonly known as the NCLEX-RN, before applying to the partnership.

However, nurses should not interpret the partnership as a waiver of U.S. professional licensing rules.

CGFNS states that registered nurses completing its VisaScreen process must provide evidence of nursing knowledge through either the CGFNS Qualifying Exam or the NCLEX-RN.

State licensing requirements are a separate matter. A nurse who is accepted into an employment program still needs to satisfy the requirements necessary to legally practice nursing in the state where the person will work.

More specific Ohio licensing instructions will be particularly important once the Ghana-Columbus program publishes its actual recruitment procedure.

Will Ghanaian Nurses Need an English Test?

This is another area where applicants should wait for official instructions rather than making assumptions.

Current CGFNS VisaScreen guidance requires applicants who are not exempt to demonstrate English-language competency using an approved examination. Accepted examinations include IELTS, TOEFL iBT, OET, Pearson PTE Academic, MET, TOEIC and certain Cambridge English examinations.

Importantly for Ghanaian applicants, CGFNS does not currently list Ghana among the countries qualifying for its education-based English examination exemption.

The exemption listed by CGFNS generally requires entry-level professional education to have occurred in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada except Quebec, New Zealand, Ireland or the United States, with English used as the language of instruction.

Therefore, a nurse should not assume that completing nursing education in English in Ghana automatically eliminates the English testing requirement for U.S. immigration screening.

The eventual Ghana-Columbus recruitment instructions should clarify exactly which credentialing route successful applicants will use.

What U.S. Visa Will Ghanaian Nurses Use?

The specific U.S. immigration category for nurses recruited through the Ghana-Columbus partnership has not been publicly identified in the announcements reviewed for this article.

This is an important unanswered question because obtaining a nursing job and receiving authorization to work in the United States are separate processes.

A U.S. employer, professional licensing authority and federal immigration authorities can each have different requirements.

The partnership has been described as creating a legal pathway into Ohio’s healthcare workforce, but nurses should wait for the official program documents before assuming which visa or employment-based immigration process will be used.

Applicants should also be cautious of anyone promising a “guaranteed U.S. visa” based solely on the existence of the MoU.

What Has Not Been Announced Yet?

The announcement answers the biggest question, which is whether Ghana and Columbus intend to establish a formal nursing employment pathway. Many of the practical details, however, remain unresolved publicly.

As of September 22, 2026, the reports reviewed do not specify:

• How many Ghanaian nurses will be recruited.
• When applications will open.
• Where applicants will submit applications.
• Which hospitals, health systems or nursing facilities will employ participants.
• Which nursing specialties will receive priority.
• Whether newly qualified nurses will be eligible.
• How much professional experience applicants will need.
• Whether the program will cover credential evaluation costs.
• Whether employers will pay for examinations or licensing.
• Whether airfare or relocation expenses will be covered.
• What salaries and benefits will be offered.
• Which U.S. immigration category will be used.
• Whether recruitment will be limited to Columbus or expand elsewhere in Ohio.

These details will determine how valuable the program ultimately becomes for individual nurses.

Ghanaian Nurses Should Be Careful About Recruitment Scams

A major international employment announcement can quickly attract fake recruiters.

A person claiming to represent the Ghana-Columbus Nursing Partnership Programme should be treated cautiously if that person requests large upfront payments, guarantees a visa, promises employment without credential checks or pressures applicants to send money through a personal mobile money account.

Nurses should verify recruitment announcements through official government channels and confirm that any employer or recruitment organization is genuinely involved with the program.

Applicants should also be skeptical of claims that the partnership allows nurses to bypass U.S. licensing, credential verification or immigration requirements unless such an exemption is explicitly confirmed by the responsible authorities.

What Could the Nursing Partnership Mean for Ghana?

International recruitment of Ghanaian nurses is not entirely new.

Ghana’s Ministry of Health previously reported facilitating the deployment of 95 Ghanaian nurses to Barbados in 2020 as part of international cooperation involving health workers.

The Columbus agreement therefore fits into a broader history of Ghana exploring structured international employment opportunities for health professionals.

The challenge is balancing those opportunities with Ghana’s own healthcare staffing needs.

International employment can give individual nurses access to higher earnings, additional professional experience and new training opportunities. At the same time, large-scale migration of experienced nurses can create workforce pressure at hospitals and clinics in the country they leave.

The Ghana-Columbus agreement attempts to frame the relationship as more than one-way recruitment. Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh described the partnership as including skills transfer, institutional development, research and innovation.

How those elements are implemented will matter. A program that creates international career opportunities while also strengthening nursing training and healthcare capacity in Ghana would have a different long-term effect from a recruitment program focused only on moving workers abroad.

For readers interested in the wider health system, see our guide to Ghana’s Free Primary Health Care program.

What Ghanaian Nurses Interested in the USA Should Do Next

Nurses who are interested in the program do not need to sit idle while waiting for the formal recruitment process.

They can begin making sure their professional records are in order. This includes checking that nursing registrations are current, locating academic transcripts and certificates, confirming that names are consistent across documents and researching the U.S. credential evaluation process.

Nurses can also begin learning about NCLEX preparation and VisaScreen requirements without paying anyone who claims to control access to the Ghana-Columbus program.

The most important step, however, is to watch for the official recruitment announcement.

An authentic application process should eventually answer basic questions such as eligibility, required experience, participating employers, salary, credentialing costs, visa processing and where applications must be submitted.

Until those details are available, the safest description of the agreement is this: Ghana and Columbus have created the framework for a formal pathway that could allow qualified Ghanaian nurses to work in Ohio, but the detailed public recruitment process has not yet been announced.

What Happens Next?

The next major development to watch is the transition from the signed MoU to an actual recruitment system.

That should include clearer information about employers, candidate requirements, licensing, immigration processing and application procedures.

Labour Minister Emmanuel Kwadwo Agyekum has also suggested that the framework could potentially become a model for similar arrangements elsewhere in the United States. Whether that happens will depend in part on how the Columbus partnership is implemented.

For now, the agreement represents a potentially important new international employment route for Ghana’s nursing workforce, but applicants should distinguish between what has been formally announced and details that are still being developed.

Sources

• Graphic Online: “Ghana, Columbus city sign nursing partnership agreement – Ghanaian nurses to work in Ohio” (September 16, 2026)
• MyJoyOnline: “Ghana, City of Columbus sign MoU to establish nursing partnership programme” (September 15, 2026)
• CGFNS International: “VisaScreen: Visa Credentials Assessment”
• CGFNS International: “CGFNS Certification Program”
• Ghana Ministry of Health