Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Hon. Kwaku Ampratwum Sarpong has stated that the new price hikes are going to help and improve the issuance and delivery of passports to all applicants.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced new prices for passports on April 1, 2024, with some adjustments made to the existing application fees.
According to the announcement, the new processing fees for various types of passport documents include Expedited Application 48 pages GH¢800.00, Expedited Application 32 pages GH¢700.00, Standard Application 32 pages GH¢500.00, Standard Application 48 pages GH¢644.00.
Speaking on Oyerepa Breakfast show Tuesday morning, the deputy minister explained that the new adjustment is intended to help the ministry improve service delivery to all applicants across the country.
He mentioned that the government has previously subsidized the processing fee of passport applications, and now it is necessary to make some revisions to the system to support their work.
“The cost of applying for a passport is GH 100 and the processing fee is 400, so the government covers the cost of GH 300, which means the government takes almost 80 percent of the fees,” he said.
“All those applying for passports, only 70 percent may need it for urgent purposes. So why should the government subsidize these costs when applicants do not really use it for any purpose… who does this business?” he quizzed.
Adding that we must take politics out of this issue because the hypocrisy in this country is too much and destroying everything in this country.
However, he assured that his outfit is rather incurring a loss and that is affecting the work of the ministry. Due to this issue, they have realized that it would be better to have a second look at the prices, hence the need for the new prices for the application of passports.
Meanwhile, he stated that Ghana does not have the capacity to print out these passports because they do not own the machines to do all this work on the passport, causing much delays in the processing of passports to applicants.
“We want to improve in the issuance and delivery of passports to all applicants, and we are hopeful that in the next few months the issues of goro boys will be a thing of the past as soon as the new prices are rightly implemented,” he stated.
He further assured that there is going to be a massive improvement in the service delivery of passports to everyone.
Source: oyerepafmonline.com/Freduah Agyemang Derrick
