Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States, Emmanuel Victor Smith, has said improving living conditions in Ghana will reduce the number of Ghanaians who travel abroad in search of better opportunities.
He says government and leadership must work to solve the long-term problem to make Ghanaians happy to remain at home.
Speaking in a Zoom interview on Onua TV’s morning show, Maakye, on Monday, November 2, 2026, Ambassador Smith commented on the killing of a young Ghanaian boy in the Bronx, New York, and extended condolences to the family.
His comments follow the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Ghanaian teenager, Javits Badu Nkansah Frimpong, on Thursday, October 29, 2026, in the Claremont neighbourhood of the Bronx.
The teenager was shot once in the abdomen shortly before 9:30 a.m. near East 171st Street and Crotona Place while walking to school. He was rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Javits had moved from Ghana to the United States exactly a year ago to join his father, Thomas Frimpong, 60, and was a student of DreamYard Preparatory School. His father described him as his “everything” and said the boy had complained of being bullied at school.
According to police, they are searching for three teenage suspects aged 16 to 18 who were last seen wearing black clothing and blue surgical masks. No arrests have been made and the motive remains unclear.
The killing has sparked outrage among Ghanaians at home and in the U.S., with hundreds marching in New York City chanting “Justice for Javits”. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Congressman Ritchie Torres and Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa have all condemned the incident.
Mayor Mamdani has said U.S. President Donald Trump has agreed to grant an immediate visa to the teenager’s mother, Doris Gyamfi, who lives in Kumasi, to travel to New York for his burial.
Officials from Ghana’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations have also visited the family to commiserate them.
However, Ambassador Smith said the incident should prompt a deeper reflection on why many Ghanaians leave the country.
“If life gets better in Ghana, less people will get out of the country. It is for leadership and government into the future to try and solve a long term problem,” he said.
“If we don’t address, these issues, some of our people went to South Africa and there were disturbances. I mean it’s a long term project but still, it has to be done so Ghanaians will be happy to remain at home,” he stated.
“We give our condolences to the family,” he added.
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