VICE PRESIDENT Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has expressed delight at the acceptance of the Ghana Card by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) as e-passport.
The Vice President, in a Facebook post on Thursday, wrote, “Dear friends, many of you will recall that during my recent lecture at Ashesi University I stated that we were working to make sure the Ghana Card (our national identity card) will be recognised in all countries and at all airports in the world as an e-passport by the end of March 2022.
“I am happy to report that following a ‘Key Ceremony’ at the headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in Montreal, Canada, Ghana’s National Identity Card (the Ghana Card) will now be duly recognised globally as a valid e-passport/ID card.”
The Vice President said by the foregoing, Ghana officially became the 79th member of the ICAO Public Key Directory (PKD) community in October 2019.
ICAO has indicated that with Wednesday’s Key Ceremony in Montreal, the GhanaCard becomes internationally acceptable for travel, and “border control authorities can confirm in less than 10 seconds that the Ghana Card/e-passport was issued by the right authority, has not been altered, and is not a copied or cloned document,” he stated.
Dr. Bawumia said in practical terms, this means that it will now be faster and more effective for border control authorities to verify the identity of holders of the Ghana Card.
He asserted that the holder of a GhanaCard will be allowed to board a flight to Ghana from any airport, just as with the normal biometric passport, without the need for a visa.
Also, Diasporan Ghanaians who hold the Ghana Card will not require a visa to travel to Ghana, he added.
“Within ECOWAS, the Ghana Card can be used to travel to any country. Travelling outside ECOWAS, however, will require that you use your normal biometric passport which will contain your visas.”
“In the not-too-distant future, we expect that electronic visas will be issued under ICAO 2.0 protocols. When this starts, electronic visas could be issued on the Ghana Card under bilateral arrangements with other countries,” he indicated further.
The Vice President noted that “this is a major achievement by Ghana for which we should all be proud. I would like to thank the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation, Ministry of Interior, Ghana Immigration Service, National Identification Authority, NITA, and Margins Group for their tireless efforts working in collaboration to make this day possible.”
He continued, “Ayekoo! There were many who thought this was impossible, but nothing is impossible if you put your mind to it.God bless our homeland Ghana.”
BY Samuel Boadi