Government has announced plans to expand passport application centers across the country to make the acquisition of passports much easier.
Currently, there are only six centres across the country, a situation that causes delays, also because the regional offices are not empowered to print the passports for prospective applicants.
The situation has caused many applicants grave frustrations, leading to exploitation by some swindlers.
But the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Charles Owiredu, has told government will expand the centers to ten, to resolve this challenge.
He also indicated that, government will improve on the online application process.
“One of the key things that has bedeviled the Ministry is in the area of passport. People are complaining that anytime they need a passport and they go to the passport application centres there are delays. Now we have six centres where people can apply for passports and the plan is to extend it to all the regional capitals so instead of the six we will have ten.”
“Also we have the online application. We also want to expand the online application to all centres so people can sit in the comfort of their homes and apply for their passports. We want to make sure that every mission is capable of issuing passports.”
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, had earlier reiterated government’s resolve to ensure that the processes leading to passport acquisition in the country are made easier.
Speaking during her vetting as Minister Nominee, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey said : “We’ll be ensuring that processes that Ghanaians go through that has something to do with the foreign ministry will be smooth processes such as the acquisition of passports and visas and all of that, there is a lot of work there that needs to be done and we are going to do our best.”
Ghana in December 2016 launched an online passport application service, aimed at easing the mode of application of passports for Ghanaians, while ensuring maximum security for applicants.
The introduction of the system was also to prevent the activities of ‘goro boys’ in the passport application process that often results in defrauding of innocent Ghanaians.
Ms Hanna S. Tetteh, the then Foreign Affairs Minister, said the service was inherent in the e-Government strategy. However, the online application process is not effective.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
