Ghanaian biometric passports to be issued in London by end of May

Ghanaians living in the United Kingdom will from May 2015 be able to request and have their biometric passports issued to them in London.

This is part of plans being taken by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration to decentralise the issuance of passports and reduce the backlog of unprinted passports at the Passport Office in Accra.

Speaking on Citi FM Tuesday, the sector Minister, Hannah Tetteh said the process which will begin in May this year will enable Ghanaians living in the diaspora have their biometric data captured by the Ghana Embassy and have it printed there too. 

“London is our biggest mission so London is certainly of them which are going to issue biometric passports,” she said.

Hannah Tetteh further explained that, “We’ve picked a couple of our Missions where we have large Ghanaian Diasporas which are not doing the biometric passports…so that the rush will not be on the Passport Office in Accra and people will be able to have their biometric data outside of Ghana and their passports printed in our Embassies outside of Ghana so that we can have this process of getting their passports to them much faster than is the present case.” 

She said the Embassies have procured the equipment needed to facilitate the process, adding that, “Now it’s the question of making sure that the hardware and software work effectively together…What we want to do is to make sure that the system we have currently is working to the point that we don’t have a backlog of passports so that if we tell you you’ll get your passport in a week, you’ll get your passport in a week.”

On the issue of backlogs, Hannah Tetteh explained that between Thursday and Monday, it had been reduced to 17,000 from 21,000, adding that, it would take the Passport Office about a month to clear the entire backlog.