The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integrations, Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, says the government plans to establish passport application centers in all the 16 regions.
The aim of this initiative is to ease the burden on the Accra application center which has high demand and long processes, leading to delays in individuals obtaining their passports.
Mr. Ablakwa revealed these plans in Parliament on Thursday, March 13, 2025, while he was being questioned. According to him, although there are no immediate plans to establish such centers in the various districts, he assured that building these application centers at the regional level will help ease the burden on the Accra centers, thus, making it easy for citizens to get their passports with ease.
The minister emphasized that the main point of establishing these centers at the regional level is to ease the burden on citizens to travel to the country’s capital just to get their travel documents.
He said, “Our plan now is to regionalise and make sure we have passport application centers in all the 16 regions of Ghana. We do not currently have plans to have district offices. We take the view that the reforms we are carrying out, the delivery, the 24-hour operations, reducing the waiting period and all of that, should suffice once you have regional offices and the courier service will make sure that your passport is delivered to you wherever you are in the region.”
Currently, the main passport application centers in Accra are overwhelmed with applications causing long processing ordeals for applicants. Some individuals who usually need to get their travel documents have to travel long distances to the capital, only to join long queues and experience delays in their application processes.
This initiative by the government, if implemented, will help reduce congestion in the various Accra centers, and improve the speed in application processes. People will not have to join long queues and experience inconsistencies in their application for their passports.
Source: Dehotpress
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