The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration will have to be resourced with adequate equipment to enable them to deliver the provision of passports expeditiously, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament Kwame Andy Appiah-Kubi has said while justifying the new passport application fees.
He explained that the increase in the passport application fees ensures that more people are able to have access to the passport.
He explained that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration needs to be resourced adequately to enable it to print more passports.
That required that fees be increased to generate enough revenue for more passport centers to be created and adequate tools provided.
Asked for the rationale behind the increment while speaking on the mid day news on 3FM with Beatrice Adu, Mr Appiah-Kubi, lawmaker for Asante Akim North said “your remember during the budget there was an indication that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration was running at a loss in respect of applications and operations of passports and at the time parliament approved that the Ministry should bring new fees. I happen to be a member of the subsidiary committee and during the consideration for the fees and charges the Ministry made the submission to the committee the need for us to increase the fees.
“So this was approved by the committee and subsequently adopted by the Parliament of Ghana.
Asked again whether the only reason the committee gave approval was the explanation given by the Foreign Affairs Committee that the country was not paying enough for passports as per international standards, he answered ” Yes, that is one of the reasons and the second reason is that we needed to make passports accessible to the whole of the citizenry and if we were going to do that then we needed to expand access and create more centers and procure equipment for them for the delivery of passports, you can also recall people waiting passports to be delivered would have to wait on end and therefore all of these, put together, required that we resource the ministry to be able to perform its duties diligently for which reason the consideration of the increase in the fees.”
He stressed “If you look at the cost of renewing your passport, the ministry has already absorbed a lot of the costs. For how long can we continue to do that if it is required that the ministry also expands access? Therefore it came to the point that for us to operate and to deliver on time then there was the need for us to be able to find some balance in the ministry so it is never the case that passport.”
It is the case that you don’t want to eat your cake and have it back, you want the passport and you want to deliver it on time and therefore you are paying to provide the facilities to be able to deliver on our mandate
The increment has attracted flak from some persons including including North Tongu Member of Parliament Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa.
Mr Ablakwa described it as insensitive due to the economic challenges that Ghanaians are saddled with currently.
“The timing is unacceptable, we have an economic crisis on our hands where people for the first time are being taken through debt restructuring, haircut, the timing is totally insensitive,” he said on the New Day show on TV3 Tuesday, April 2.
Earlier, the Ranking Member on the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament served notice that the NDC Minority in Parliament will push for the reversal of the new passport application fees.
He described the new fees as “draconian” in reaction to the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s implementation of the new charges.
In a post on his Facebook profile, he wrote: “I am terribly disappointed in Ghana’s Foreign Ministry for the astronomical increases in passport application fees.
“As my NDC colleagues and I always maintained at the Foreign Affairs Committee, the current economic crisis and unprecedented high cost of living make it untenable to impose these draconian fees.
“We insisted at the Committee that the worst case scenario could be a graduated approach when economic conditions improve, but alas, they ignored our advice and have gone ahead to impose these insensitive rates in one fell swoop.”
“The Ministry should reconsider this inimical action immediately. We shall surely revisit this matter when Parliament resumes from recess,” he stated.
Background
The Foreign Affairs Ministry has increased the application fees for passport services from GHC100 to GHC500 for a 32-page standard and GHC644 for a 48-page standard booklet, effective today, Monday, April 1, 2024.
In the same vein, applicants opting for the 32-page expedited service will pay GHC700 and GHC800 for the 48-page expedited service.
The new fees were contained in the Ministry’s 2024 Budget estimates document, which has been approved by Parliament’s Subsidiary Legislation Committee.
The online passport application page of the Ministry has been equally updated to reflect the new fees.
in December last year, sector Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey requested Parliament’s Committee on Subsidiary Legislation that the passport application fees be reviewed to allow the ministry to reduce losses in passport booklet printing.
“It is time for Ghanaians to pay realistic prices for passports they acquire to travel beginning next year,” said the Minister.
The Minister also argued that the current fee of $7.7 for the acquisition of a Ghanaian passport was the lowest in the sub-region.
“Ghanaians pay just about GH¢100 for a passport yet to produce one passport booklet it costs GH¢400 which means that for every passport that an applicant acquires, the government has to put in GH¢300 and this is not sustainable,” she added.
A comparison showed that Cameroon charges $180, Guinea $57, Guinea-Bissau $65, Burkina Faso $80, and Nigeria $54.29 for passport services.
Meanwhile, the new fees as proposed by the Ministry received no objection at the committee level within 21 days, paving the way for them to go into effect.