90,000 Passport Application Backlog Will Be Cleared – Foreign minister

Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, has admitted that there are currently about 90,000 passport applicants who have not received their passports, noting that her ministry is taking decisive steps to address the challenge.

According to the Foreign Affairs Minister, the backlog is due to global supply chain disruptions being experienced by all importers worldwide. This, she says, accounts for the inability of Ghana’s supplier of passport booklets to meet the country’s demands.

Addressing members of the media today 3 October 2022 after an unannounced working visit to the Greater Accra, Passport Application Centre (PAC) at Tema Station, Accra and the Passport Head Office, Ridge, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration will take delivery of over 300,000 booklets in the next 10 days to clear the backlog.

“We normally would order our booklets in advance. When we get to a certain level of supply, we order the next batch of booklets. Unfortunately, because of COVID and the supply chain issues that have occurred as a result, we are having difficulties with our booklets coming in.

As we speak we have booklets in stock, but the booklets that we have in stock are less than demand. Fortunately, we will receive booklets around the 13th of this month, way more than what is in backlog,” Miss Botchwey said.

“We are expecting over 300,000 this month. I believe the backlog is about 90,000, we have some in stock to take care of emergencies and expedited service and so on,” she added.

Foreign supplier claims

Clarifying claims that Ghana’s supplier of passport booklets is Chinese and that the current shortage of booklets is because the country owes her Chinese supplier, the Foreign Minister noted that the allegation was far from the truth.

“Our supplier hasn’t changed the last 15 years. Our supplier is a Ghanaian, one hundred percent owned company, who supplies and also supports us with some service here (Passport Office) in terms of hardware. It has not changed and I don’t even see it changing. So it is false that the supplier is a Chinese,” Foreign Affairs Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey stated.

Chip embedded passports

Miss Botchwey also hinted that the country in the next 7 months will be transitioning from the current biometric to chip embedded passports. She added that the contract has been awarded to a wholly Ghanaian-owned company and she is hopeful that the service of issuing same will commence within the timelines that have been set.

She indicated that chip embedded passports is the new global trend in terms of passports issued by sovereign states. The level of security guarantees that they offer, according to Miss Botchwey, makes chip embedded passports, most preferred worldwide.

“This is good (which is the biometric), but it has its limitations. The chip embedded has more security features and therefore, it will reduce the “non-Ghanaians”, so to speak, who are able to get our passports and it will be linked directly to the national identification (system which is being compiled),” Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey said.