Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration was aware of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) agreement ceremony for the Ghana Card to be used as a valid travel document to over 190 countries across 44,000 airports worldwide.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kwaku Ampratwum Sarpong, who had been quoted as denying that the Ministry had any knowledge of the event explained that he had been misquoted in an interview he granted on Kumasi-based Akoma FM on Thursday, February 10,
2022.
According to him, whoever was behind the story is being mischievous.
He said he had explained to the journalist during the said interview that he was not in a position to speak to an ICAO report.
He said his point about not knowing anything about the use of the Ghana Card as a passport was to the extent that no official communication had been issued by the sector Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey at the time.
“The Minister told me (on the evening of February 9, 2022) that she hasn’t made any statement but she also confirmed to me that she had knowledge of that event and because she had knowledge of that and it was going to be launched, she has asked our Director of Passports to go there.
In my interview, I have indicated that if I say I don’t know of the Ghana Card, it is a lie… I was asked about an ICAO report and I said that report is not coming from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” he said.
He explained further that the journalist’s bid to interrogate him on the ICAO report is exactly what he denied. “I said this report is not coming from my ministry… if it were coming from a Ghana government source like from the Office of the Vice President, that will be a different ball game,” he added.
The Deputy Minister who doubles as Member of Parliament for Asante Mampong also clarified that the e-passport issue fell under the wider digitization drive by the government and was under the auspices of the Office of the Vice President.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on Wednesday, February 9 reported that holders of the Ghana Card, as well as its future biometric equivalents, can present it as official documentation at all 197 (ICAO) compliant countries and 44,000 airports worldwide and board flights to Ghana.
Ghana signed a certificate of authority into the PKF system at a ceremony held by ICAO in Montreal, Canada.
Ransford Sowah, Ghana’s High Commissioner in Canada received the country’s certification to allow for the adoption of the unique biometric identification card for travel.
Aside from the Director of Passports, the Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority, Prof Kenneth Attafuah was also in attendance along with other government officials.
Before this, Ghana was in October last year accepted as the 79th member of ICAO’s Public Key Directory (PKD) community.
The ICAO (PKD) is a central repository for exchanging the information required to authenticate e-passports for
travel-related activities.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri