A sigh of relief for passport applicants

Ghanaians who want to acquire passports can now heave a sigh of relief following the launch of an online passport application system in Accra yesterday.

The new system is expected to ease the process of passport acquisition in the country.

Under the new system, actual passport processing times and delivery deadlines are expected to be 15 working days for standard applications and five working days for express applications.

In recent times, the Passport Offices in Accra have become scenes of pressure and stampede by desperate applicants who mass up there as a result of delays in having their passports issued.

The situation was worsened following the breakdown of the old machines which made it impossible to print the required number of passports.

In its wake, some unscrupulous persons, known as ‘goro boys’ or ‘middlemen’, who hovered around the premises of the Passport Office took advantage of the situation to exploit desperate passport applicants.

Some applicants became victims of fraud, since the ‘goro boys’ ended up duping them under the pretext of facilitating their acquisition of passports.

It is against this background that the Daily Graphic supports and lauds the effort of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration to introduce sanity and orderliness in the processing and acquisition of passports in the country.

The launch of the online system, the Daily Graphic hopes, will bring to an end the many man hours wasted at the Passport Office which, on a daily basis, receives scores of desperate applicants who throng the place to enquire about the status of their applications.

The sector Minister, Ms Hannah Tetteh, said at the launch that the system was aimed at addressing the existing difficulties that had bedevilled passport acquisition in Ghana and to inculcate efficiency and reliability into the passport delivery system.

She also mentioned the fact that in recent times the constant threat of sophisticated fraud and identity theft in its various forms had been an increasing challenge and, therefore, the expectations of Ghanaians in terms of efficient, flexible and timely delivery of public services had grown.

Per the new policy, the online passport applicant must first and foremost have all supporting documents available and log onto www.passports.mfa.gov.gh or www.passport.mfa.gov.gh, create an account with a valid and active mobile phone number and e-mail address and proceed to register.

With the new system, three financial institutions and their branches have been designated to receive payments from applicants. They are Ecobank, Zenith Bank and GCB Bank.

Payment cards and mobile money transfers via Vodafone, MTN and Airtel are also acceptable forms of payment, according to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration.

It is our hope that the difficulties and frustrations that accompanied the application for passports will become things of the past with the launch of the online passport application system.