Ghana’s Passport Office - a cesspit of extortion

Under normal circumstances it should be very easy and simple to obtain a passport as it pertains in the developed world but in our part of the world, Africa and for that matter Ghana things prove unreasonably hard.

Obtaining a biometric passport which can be used in the sub-region west Africa has become very difficult and cumbersome for the Ghanaian.

It is a Friday morning, at 8.30 and I am in the passport office, along with over 300 others, either queuing to submit their passport forms or queuing to have their biometric features captured or also to find out if their passport is ready.

It will surprise you to know that an express passport that is supposed to take one week may end up taking between five or six months, and the normal one, which is supposed to take a month can also be acquired within the same time period ,and so one will ask is it necessary to pay more and acquire it within the same frame as the normal one?

It takes a hell of time to even gain access to the premises of the passport office at the old premises of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Most people get there as early as 3am to queue to submit forms or see a director, talk of chairs for those that had the opportunity to enter is nothing good to write about.

The activities of middle men and fraudsters in the premises worsens the plight of innocent citizens who finally get in.

These fraudsters looks for unsuspecting individuals with the pretense of helping them to be able to overcome the long queues and the cumbersome process but end up being robbed, it is also believed that these middlemen are somehow connected to staff in the passport office who would assist people who hitherto came late to bypass those who had come earlier to come and queue.

A passport form which usually ranges between 50 cedis and 100 cedis with the 50 cedis passport you may get it after a month but the 100 cedis form is supposed to be ready within 14 working days.

A personal ordeal I went through was the fact that I had been introduced to a middle man who charged me 500 cedis and promised to help me acquire a passport within the next seven working days after I had filled all the necessary information and captured my biometric features only for him to have absconded with my money after two years of chasing after him.

I then deployed another means by checking with my name and date of birth only to realise that no data of mine has been captured in the system and I stood for almost 30 minutes wondering where my biometric features that had been captured earlier on had gone.

I almost cried…it wasn’t a funny incident at all…I couldn’t believe I had been duped and in fact it ripped me off an opportunity to visit America for a conference which would have been very beneficial to my profession and my country as whole.

Well it will surprise you to know I haven’t been the only one to have suffered this ordeal, I chanced upon Lucy who apparently had missed the same opportunity because of middle-men-passport-issues.

She went further to say she was promised an express passport within a week by having to pay 300 cedis but has now exceeded five months because according to the agent they had a problem with their system. She had no option than to go there everyday. It looked like luck fell on her side that faithful Friday as she got the opportunity to enter the premises to capture her biometric features. Thank heavens!

As I strolled through the people, I met this young man named Kinny who was promised a passport after paying 500 cedis within two weeks, even though he resides in Kumasi, he always had to travel to Accra and back with the assurance of getting his passport which he has ended up spending an extra 500 cedis amounting to 1000 just for a simple passport and still doesn’t even have it.

From my time spent waiting for my passport, and sharing my frustrations with friends and family, I’ve realised such catastrophes as Kinny’s have befallen quite a number of people.

And for me, well after two years, I am still waiting for that little book that grants me permission to leave Ghana.

And after countless hours waiting and commiserating with fellow passport hopefuls, I have no idea where I stand.So, if anyone from Foreign Affairs is reading this, please, sort your processes out!