Ghana prints 31k new chip-embedded biometric passports in one month

Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has commended the passport production team for printing 31,935 new chip-embedded passports within a period of one month.

The Minister posted the information to his X page after a recent visit to the passport production center in the capital, Accra.

Ghana launched the new generation chip-embedded biometric passport at the end of 2024, but rollout actually started last month.

In the X post, Ablakwa said he stopped by the passport office during an unannounced midnight visit to have firsthand appraisal of how the passport production process was unfolding.

Hungarian firm ANY Security Printing is providing the printing solution for the passport.

“I commend my hardworking and patriotic staff for their impressive work ethic. So far, we have printed a remarkable 31,935 chip-embedded passports since the rollout commenced on April 28,” he wrote. “The reset is on — we shall not disappoint the good people of Ghana,” he pledged.

One X user, in a comment on the Minister’s post, said a system should be introduced for “people to renew their biometric passports without having to go through another biometric data capture.”

Another user asked if there were strong enough measures to screen those to whom Ghanaian passports were being issued because nationals of another west African country were using the passports “to tarnish our image in the diaspora.”

Ahead of the rollout of the passport, Ablakwa had warned passport office staff to be assiduous in their duty posts in order to ensure passport applicants get their travel documents within the prescribed deadline.

He said, as reported then by local Asaase radio, that any staff who failed to comply with the directive will be face sanctions provided for by the regulations in force.

The chip-embedded passport rollout is part of broader immigration reforms pursued by the Ghanaian government which include modernization of the immigration control system and security enhancement at the country’s leading airports.

Article Topics

Africa  |  ANY Security Printing Company  |  biometric passport  |  digital ID  |  Ghana  |  identity document  |  travel documents