By Ernest Bako WUBONTO
The lengthy and often frustrating process of acquiring a passport in Ghana, marred with activities of ‘Goro Boys’, which currently takes an average of six months, may soon become a thing of the past due to the integration of the Ghana National Identification System (Ghana Card) into the passport application process.
The Ghana Card, with its robust biometric data footprint, has been identified as a key solution to reducing bureaucratic delays and streamlining passport acquisition.
Currently, the passport application process involves several steps, including purchasing a passport form online, completing it either online or manually, and submitting it.
Applicants must then book an appointment online for biometric data capture, followed by a waiting period of one to six months, depending on whether they opt for express or normal processing.
This process is often plagued by challenges such as difficulty securing appointment dates and long queues at passport offices, which sometimes take days to navigate.
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, during his vetting before the ad-hoc parliamentary ‘Appointments Committee’ on Friday, January 31 2025, mentioned that the Ghana Card, which serves as the country’s national identification card, is secure to make far-reaching changes in the passport application process.
He stressed that with biometric capture posing as a significant delay in the scheme of things; by leveraging the biometric data already captured in the National Identification System, the Passport Office can significantly reduce the time and effort required for passport issuance.
“I would like to use technology to reform our passport services, and I do not think that in this age, Ghanaians with Ghana Card should be queuing to register for passports,” he stated.
Governments in the past have introduced several reforms into the passport acquisition process but to date, passport acquisition in Ghana could be likened to squeezing water out of a rock unless one is willing to pay more than the stipulated amount to some Goro boy (illegal middleman).
With the anticipated integration of the Ghana Card, the Minister was optimistic that passport acquisition would be shortened to a few days irrespective of the point of application. This will eliminate Goro boys significantly if not completely.
As Ghana continues to embrace digital transformation, the integration of the Ghana Card into various data systems such as healthcare, banking and finance, and business registration, among other digital payment platforms has increased coverage and easy access significantly.
Albeit its synchronisation with the passport process could mark another milestone in the country’s efforts to modernize its identification and data security system. This initiative promises to make passport acquisition faster, easier, and more accessible for all Ghanaians irrespective of urban-rural settlement status.
Challenges
An expert, Former Executive Director, of Africa Centre for Digital Transformation (ACDT), Kwesi Atuahene, elaborated that the Ghana Card is indeed a good identification infrastructure with a robust biometric data source but has some challenges that need attention before it can be used for passport acquisition effectively.
The former director of the policy think tank, mentioned that the Ghana Card is not progressive at the moment, posing a challenge to its integration for passport processing. He argued that while the Ghana Card serves as a foundational digital identity tool, its effectiveness relies heavily on the timeliness and accuracy of the data it holds.
However, the data captured during the initial issuance of the Ghana Card in 2018/2019 has not been updated for most people after six years.
“The data of individual citizens on the Ghana Card, as issued in 2018/2019, remains unchanged even after almost six years. At the time of registration, some individuals were students, and the system captured them as such.
However, many of these individuals have since upgraded their status with some becoming military officers, lawyers, doctors, or even PhD holders. Yet, this updated information has not been reflected in the ID card database. As a result, transferring such outdated data to the passport system renders it inaccurate,” he said.
The failure to update the Ghana Card database means that critical details about individuals, such as their occupation, educational qualifications, residential address and other personal data, remain static. This undermines the card’s reliability as a comprehensive identification tool.
Hence, if its data is directly used for passport issuance, the inaccuracies could lead to inconsistencies in official documents. For example, a person’s profession or educational status on their passport may not reflect their current reality, which could cause issues during international travel or official transactions.
Mr. Atuahene highlighted the need for a data updating mechanism feature to be inculcated into the Ghana Card data operating system to enable it to play the proposed role efficiently.
“Aside from my fingerprints which haven’t changed, almost any other thing about my status has changed, but the fingerprint alone is not enough to confirm the current status of someone and a reason to use the Ghana Card when all the other information needs to be recaptured or updated. And so, we need a regular medium for data upgrades such as name change, social, tax status update and business details,” he added.
The Ghana Card serves as a crucial component of Ghana’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). Thus, a network of digital systems and services that allow governments to deliver public services efficiently and securely to citizens, essentially acting as a foundational digital infrastructure for a country, enabling access to services like digital identity, payments, data sharing, and government records.
The Ghana Card acts as a single form of identification, replacing multiple documents previously needed for various services. This simplifies processes like opening bank accounts, registering for health insurance, mobile sim card and now the passport as well as verifying identity for other purposes.
As the country strives to achieve inclusivity in all aspects of public service delivery, the Ghana Card ensures identification and enhances efficiency, transparency, and citizen engagement in accessing public services.
This report is produced as part of the DPI Africa Journalism Fellowship Programme, a collaboration between the Media Foundation for West Africa and Co-Develop.
