Many Ghanaians are praising the government for announcing longer validity periods for Ghanaian passport booklets.
Ordinary Ghanaian passport booklets used to be valid for a five-year duration.
Ghanaian passports will now have a validity period of 10 years instead of the existing 5 year validity period.
This directive was contained in a fax message sent from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to all Ghanaian missions dated 6th February, 2019.
The message however said processing fees remain unchanged for now.
The message read “MISSIONS ARE HEREBY INFORMED THAT GOVERNMENT HAS DECIDED TO EXTEND THE VALIDITY OF ORDINARY PASSPORT BOOKLETS ISSUED TO QUALIFIED GHANAIAN APPLICANTS FROM FIVE TO TEN YEARS (5-10 YEARS) WITH EFFECT FROM 31ST MARCH, 2019. THE PROCESSING FEES REMAIN THE SAME UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.
- IT SHOULD BE APPRECIATED IF THE INFORMATION WOULD BE PROMPTLY COMMUNICATED TO ALL CONCERNED
- REGARDS”
Many Ghanaians were excited as they circulated the snapshot of the message on social media.
Acquiring a passport in Ghana has been a very difficult maneuver for many over the years. Many Ghanaians www.ghanagong.com spoke to recounted horrifying experiences they have had with passport acquisition in the country.
Some say they had to wake up at dawn every day to join a long queue of passport applicants while others recounted how they had to spend more than the required fee to get their process hurried for them.
Efforts are however being made to solve the various challenges associated with passport acquisition. Already, an online application process has been launched as part of solutions to passport acquisition related challenges.
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