Director of Passport, Alexander Grant Ntirikwa, has revealed that his office is progressing steadily in its efforts to acquire more offices to provide passports to Ghanaians.
Mr. Grant speaking on Asempa FM’s Abrokyire Nkomo on Saturday 23rd May, 2015 said the passport office has worked in close relations its parent ministry, ministry of foreign affairs to ensure that it helps reduce the pressure on the passport office in Accra.
“In Cape Coast, Koforidua, Bolgatanga and Wa where we have no offices, plans are far advanced to get passport application centres at these locations to help reduce the pressure on places like Accra, Kumasi, Tamale, Ho, Sunyani and Takoradi where we have offices…,” he said.
The Director of Passport revealed further that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hanna Tetteh is playing instrumental roles in getting them the offices in the regions.
Located at the Tema Station in Accra, the passport application centre in Accra is always flooded with applicants from different regions of the country and beyond who try desperately to get their passports released unto them on time.
With several consulates and embassies not issuing passports outside Ghana, several Ghanaians have been forced to travel to the country to either renew or get new passports entirely.
All these problems, he hoped would be dealt with by the end of the year as ‘I wished people would no longer gather at locations where passports are printed…because I don’t think the embassies that we apply for visas with our passports would respect our passports when they see this….”
His wish, he continued is not out of place because it is never an international custom for people to be trooping passport printing centres in Europe and other foreign countries.
“Besides our passport office was not designed for the public, that is why we have the Tema station office, it was designed for protocol services and emergency cases…,” he said.
Validity of Passport
Referring to International Civil Aviation Rules, he counseled Ghanaians to note that no one can travel with a passport which validity is less than six months.
“No Airline would be interested in carrying persons with passport with less validity period of six months, otherwise they would have to pay fines for that…,” he added.
To ensure that passport applicants get the identity document on time, the Director of Passport further called on Ghanaians to include their birth certificates and also bring evidence of where they purchased the forms when applying.
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