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The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has announced the Ghanacard, which forms part of the Akufo-Addo administration's digital initiatives to transform the economy, will soon be recognized globally as an 'e-passport'.

The Vice President shared this good news while delivering a public lecture on the digital transformation efforts and the successes chalked in the digital space since the inception of the incumbent government at the Ashesi University on Tuesday, November 2, 2021.

He stated; ''It is not widely known that the Ghanacard is also an electronic passport (e-passport) that contains the biometric information that can be used to authenticate the identity of travelers. Government  has been working with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) this year to globally activate the e-passport function of the Ghanacard and I am happy to announce that on 13th October 2021, Ghana
officially became the 79th member of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Public Key  Directory (PKD) community''.

Throwing more light on the e-passport function, Dr. Bawumia said the PKD allows border control authorities to confirm in less than ten seconds that the e-passport was issued by the right authority, has not been altered, and is not a copy or cloned document.

''Ghana’s Country Signing Certificate Authority would therefore soon be imported into the ICAO PKD System through what is known as a Key ceremony. The Key Ceremony for  Ghana will be held at the ICAO headquarters in Montreal Canada by the 1st quarter of 2022.''

''This means that by the end of the first quarter of  2022, the Ghanacard will be recognized globally as an  e-passport and can be read and verified in all ICAO  compliant borders (i.e. in 197 countries and 44,000  airports in the world). When this happens, holders of  the Ghanacard will be allowed to board any flight to  Ghana'', he expounded.

He also stressed that making the Ghanacard an e-passport will ensure that Ghanaians in the diaspora no longer obtain visas to travel to Ghana. 

''Furthermore, the good news for diasporan Ghanaians is that when the Ghana Immigration Service is linked to the NIA architecture, diasporan Ghanaians who hold the Ghanacard should not have to obtain visas to travel to Ghana.''