Yaw Osafo-Marfo
Senior Presidential Advisor on Public Sector Reforms, Yaw Osafo-Marfo, disclosed a staggering revelation at a press briefing in Accra on Wednesday, June 19, 2024, with regards to uncollected passports in Ghana.
Osafo-Marfo revealed that a total of eighty-six thousand passports have been left uncollected at various passport application centers nationwide.
According to the report, the Greater Accra Region alone accounts for 19,500 unclaimed passports, while Cape Coast and Takoradi have 8,696 and 8,000 uncollected passports, respectively, as of June 2024.
Expressing his concerns over the significant number of abandoned passports, Osafo-Marfo emphasized the fiscal impact such neglect has had on the government. The Senior Government Advisor highlighted the subsidizing of passport production costs, noting that the government prints passports at a subsidized rate of around four dollars, significantly lower than the actual production cost of about one hundred dollars per passport.
“People are so anxious and do everything they can to get a passport. After we’ve gone through to produce the passports, they don’t come to collect,” lamented Osafo-Marfo.
He underscored the financial implications of these missed opportunities, describing the situation as a locking up of government capital due to uncollected, subsidized passports.
In light of this predicament, Osafo-Marfo called for further investigation into the reasons behind individuals failing to collect their passports after completion.
He urged authorities and researchers to delve into the root causes of this anomaly to address the underlying issues effectively.
Furthermore, Paul Kwaw Kudjo, Director at the Passport Office, cautioned the public against engaging middlemen to secure passports and encouraged applicants facing challenges to approach the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ client service unit or passport application centers for assistance directly.
“The problem of the Ghanaian is trying to use another person. This is not about whether you are educated or not,” asserted Mr. Kwaw Kudjo. “Go to the right source and seek the right information and support.”
The backlog of uncollected passports underscores the inefficiencies and challenges within the passport acquisition process despite efforts to improve public service delivery.
By Vincent Kubi