Passport fee hike sparks outcry 

By Abdulai SAAKA, Accra

Passport applicants at the Accra passport office have voiced their frustration over the sudden surge in passport application fees.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced a significant hike from GH₵100 to GH₵500 effective April 1, 2024.

It explained that the decision aligned with the 2023 fees and charges regulations, Legislative Instrument (L.I.) 2481.

Until 2019, Ghanaians paid GH₵50 for regular and GH₵100 for express services.

While Ghanaians now pay just about GH₵100 for a passport booklet, it costs GH₵400 to produce one passport booklet.

It means the government has to subsidize every passport with GH₵300, and the ministry argues that this is not sustainable.

According to the announcement, the new processing fees for various types of passport documents include Expedited Application for 48 pages at GH₵800, Expedited Application for 32 pages at GH₵700, Standard Application for 32 pages at GH₵500, while Standard Application for 48 pages is GH₵644.

Expressing their dismay, applicants highlighted the harsh economic realities plaguing the nation, making the drastic four-hundred-percent increase particularly burdensome.

Others also lamented that the longstanding challenges affecting efficient service delivery at the passport office persisted unchanged.

Meanwhile, some expressed worry over what they deemed as an intimidating number of military police personnel present at the premises of the passport office, suggesting that it could instill fear in visitors.

In response to these concerns, security analyst Dr. Adam Bonah stated that the passport office is a security zone.

The Africa Tourism Research Network (ATRN) appealed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration to reconsider the “inimical action” of a four-hundred-percent increment in passport fees.

In a release, it said increasing passport application fees by over four hundred percent is just too much to say the least.

It said it was impossible for ordinary citizens to pay “this astronomical fee increases.”

The Network said the increment could have been gradual over a period.

Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, expressed disappointment at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration’s decision to increase passport application fees in the country.

He noted that he and his colleague MPs on Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee had suggested a graduated approach when economic conditions improved, but their advice was disregarded, and he urged the Ministry to reconsider its actions.

Reacting to the announcement on his X, formerly Twitter, Mr. Ablakwa said the current economic crisis and the unprecedentedly high cost of living made the proposed increased fees untenable.

“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 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 post read.

“The Ministry should reconsider this inimical action immediately. We shall surely revisit this matter when Parliament resumes from recess,” he wrote.

Madam Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, the sector Minister, explained that the deficit in the printing of passport booklets was preventing the necessary investments in the Passport Office.

Speaking on the floor of Parliament before the approval of a GH¢1.127 million budget estimate for the ministry, Madam Ayorkor Botchwey told the House that the proposal was being considered by the Committee on Subsidiary Legislation.

“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,” the minister said.

Per the report by the Committee on Foreign Affairs on the 2024 budget estimates of the ministry, a comparison of Ghana’s passport fees with that of other West African countries shows the rate of $7.7 is the lowest within the sub-region.

Cameroon charges $180, Guinea $57, Guinea-Bissau $65, Burkina Faso $80, and Nigeria $54.29.