Henry Quartey, exchanging pleasantries with GIS staff
The Minister of the Interior, Henry Quartey, has assured the public of government’s commitment to continuously retool the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) to enable them to effectively protect the country’s borders to ensure peace and security.
The minister, who said this when he addressed the uniformed men as part of a working visit to the headquarters of the Ghana Immigration Service, said though government has over the last seven years retooled the service, it will continue to find realistic means of addressing their challenges
According to him, Ghana Immigration Service plays a key role in national security, trade and investment facilitation, tourism and national development, and therefore needs constant retooling to enable them to execute their mandate effectively to prevent any breach of the country’s borders as well as the increasing threats faced in Africa and the West African sub-region.
“Government is aware of the challenges faced by the Service in the area of logistics, office and residential accommodation, among others. Government is therefore committed to finding reasonable and realistic means of solving these challenges,” he said.
He said retooling and resourcing the agency would also go a long way to enable personnel discharge their mandate of regulating and monitoring the entry, residence, employment and exit of foreigners in Ghana efficiently.
The minister also touched on some infrastructural developments that have been provided for GIS as part of government’s efforts to continuously retool them.
That he said include the provision of 360 vehicles and over 250 motor bikes; 11 office accommodation and five housing; the establishment of a new visa system; procurement of 250, 000 machine-readable visa, and 50 hardware systems for deployment to missions abroad among others.
Mr. Henry Quartey further advised the officers to desist from using their uniforms to engage in acts that have the tendency to undermine the integrity of the profession, citing incidents of uniformed men who engage in various kinds of relationships with travelers at the airport.
“When you disembark you see them lined up waiting for their friends, they take their bags. I have told the CG to send a message to them that it has to stop with immediate effect”.
If an immigration officer is found around the arrival hall, or departure hall engaging passengers. Please consider that you will be at home for a long time”. He stated
Comptroller-General of GIS, Kwame Asuah Takyi, who thanked the ministry for continuously supporting his outfit with logistics, said such support has gone a long way to improve on their mandate as an agency mandated to protect the country’s borders.
While recounting the achievement of GIS under his leadership, the Comptroller-General said apart from the provision of infrastructure and logistics, the increased staff strength has also gone a long way to improve service delivery in all parts of the country, while assuring the minister of the Agency’s readiness to deliver as expected.
By Ebenezer K.Amponsah