Shirley Ayorkor Botchway interacting with some passport applicants at the Passport Office.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, yesterday paid an unannounced visit to the passport office in Accra.
Her first port of call was the Accra Passport Application Centre (PAC), where she sought to know at first-hand the challenges applicants go through in acquiring the traveling document.
Chief among them was the complaint about unnecessary delays that beset applicants due to bureaucratic bottlenecks, resulting in long queues.
It was interesting to note how some have to travel from long distances to the place as early as 1:00 am in order to be served first, only for them to realise in the morning that they are among those who came late.
It was also surprising to note that some applicants who had paid for expedited services – which under normal circumstance should not take more than two weeks for one to obtain the passports – have to endure close to five months before getting them.
It even took the minister herself to help some of the frustrated citizens to eventually get their passports.
To that end, she announced government’s intention to open new passport application centres in Tema, Koforidua, Cape Coast and the Upper East and West Regions to reduce the stress that Ghanaians go through.
Apart from the Accra Passport Application Centre and headquarters, there are only four other centres in the country.
Ms Ayorkor Botchway gave indication of plans by government to extend the validity period on Ghana passport from the current five to 10 years in consonance with international standards.
According to her, the current validity period of five years was meant to be a temporary measure and that with an incoming new passport regime that utilises the chip-embedded technology, the five years validity would be extended to 10.
In an interview with the media after her visit, Ms Ayorkor Botchway said that her experience was one full of mixed-feelings.
From what she saw, she said the online application appeared smooth and posed no challenges as compared to the manual process, which is accompanied by long queues and delays.
“But how can anybody, a Ghanaian, applying for a passport, queue from 3am? It is not right. What I will say is to humbly ask Ghanaians – those who can – to please use the online system because when we went to the online office, things were moving smoothly,” she observed.
She expressed deep concern at the rate at which foreigners, especially Nigerians, were acquiring Ghanaian passports.
The minister was sure that when the national identity card becomes fully operational, it will go a long way to address some of these challenges.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu