The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, has said that it is time for Ghanaians to pay realistic prices for passports they acquire beginning next year.
She made this statement while addressing parliament about the ministry’s proposal to increase the passport application fee from GH¢100 to GH¢644 ahead of the approval of the GH¢1.127 million budget estimates for her ministry.
According to the minister, this is to enable the ministry to retrieve losses in the printing of passport booklet and due to economic hardship, the state can no longer cater for the half payment on passports.
“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 said.
The minister further explained government having to incur the cost of GH¢300 contributes to the delay and investments in the office.
“On the cost of passports, it is not sustainable, therefore, I will plead with this honourable house to look at the issue for us. It is already before the subsidiary legislation committee, and I’m hoping that Ghanaians will pay realistic prices for passports. At the moment, passports don’t serve as IDs, we have national ID cards. Therefore, those who need passports are those who need them to travel, and I don’t think that they would want us to continue to subsidize it.”
