The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration aims to raise the cost of obtaining passports for Ghanaians from GH¢100 to GH¢644, as revealed by sector minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey.
In an interview with Graphic Online, she explained that the current cost of obtaining passports does not sufficiently sustain the cost of production of passports booklets for government.
“Ghanaians pay just about GH¢100 for a passport. To produce one passport booklet, it costs GH¢400, which means that for every passport that an applicant acquires, the government has to put in GH¢300, and this is not sustainable.”
Addressing Parliament before the approval of a GH¢1.127 million budget estimate for her ministry, Ayorkor Botchwey stressed that the proposal is under consideration by the Committee on Subsidiary Legislation.
“On the cost of passports, it is not sustainable; therefore, I will plead with this honorable house to look at the issue for us. It is already before the subsidiary legislation committee, and I’m hoping that Ghanaians will pay realistic prices for passports. At the moment, passports don’t serve as IDs; we have national ID cards. Therefore, those who need passports are those who need them to travel, and I don’t think that they would want us to continue to subsidize it.”
Regarding passport backlogs, she stated that efforts are underway to acquire a large printer to expedite the processing.
Deputy Minister Kwaku Ampratwum-Sarpong justified the proposed fee increase, citing production expenses and the comparatively lower fees in Ghana compared to neighboring West African countries. He disclosed ongoing discussions with Parliament to finalize the approved fees, further citing plans of upgrading the passports to chip-embedded formats.
“Liberia charges $50, we charge $8, meaning we have to subsidize every passport. So the money to buy the printers is used to subsidize the passports… And also, we are thinking of upgrading our passport from biometric to chip-embedded. So the chip-embedded version is going to cost more. If we continue charging at $8, we will continue to face the problems that we are having at the passport office… So we have to raise the fees.”
