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Government has launched the Online Passport application service to reduce the number of days passports are acquired in the country.
According to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Madam, Hannah Tetteh, the move is to ensure the total elimination of intermediaries and involvement of paperwork.
She said applicants are likely to receive their passport within an average of ten days if all the necessary information and documents are intact.
Speaking to Radiogold905.com on the sidelines of the launch of online passport application service in Accra Tuesday, Hannah Tetteh, noted that the online application service will reduce the involvement of middle men (Guroboys) who sometime swindle citizens of huge sums of money without delivering the passport as well as shorten the data capturing procedures which is currently carried out at the passport application centers.
“Ghanaians would like to do things for themselves, and this will reduce the number of persons always going to the passport office for their passports especially for the data capturing,” she said.
Three financial institutions, Ecobank Bank, Zenith and GCB Bank would provide the requisite support for the project as well as receive payments from applicants through the bank branches across the country.
The Director of Passports, Mr. Alexander Grant Ntrakwa, was happy said it will reduce the number of applicants who usually besiege his office for their passport.
He said the Ministry aims to put in place a system which would reduce to the barest minimum the intervention of third parties.
“I am happy today to have seen the birth of the project. It has been my dream since I came to the passport office that if by the time I leave here I will make sure we go online and I am happy that it has finally come to pass today,” he said.
The online passport applicant must first and foremost have supporting documents available and applicants will log onto the website www.passport.mfa.gov.gh and choose the mode of payment, fill and submit the form online, and finally proceed to the Accra passport office to capture their bio-data and choose a date of appointment after which a slip containing their transaction number and collection date would be issued.
The process would take fifteen (15) working days for standard applications and five (5) working days for express applications.
By: Osman Abadoo/Radiogold905.com
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