Ghanaians would wince, roll their eyes and suck their teeth when they hear Ghana is first of the 54 countries of the African Union (AU) to report back to the AU that it has completed mechanisms for the use of the continental passport proposed by the organisation.
Acquiring a passport in Ghana has become a case of a camel passing through the eye of a needle.
The Ghana passport office is always choked with large numbers of applicants seeking to acquire the travel document. After going through the hassle to submit application forms, some Ghanaians report of being compelled to part with extra sums of money and there is also the unyielding issue of passports never being issued on proposed collection dates by the office.
Ghanaians are likely to ask; “If they can’t produce our own passport, which is biometric, how can they produce an e-passport?”
But Ghana is the first country to complete mechanisms to ready its immigration service to start allowing entry into the country for holders of the new passport proposed by the continental body.
Addressing The African Editors’ Forum (TAEF) side event, the only side event at the 27th Summit of the AU Wednesday July 14, 2016 in Kigali, Rwanda, the Chairperson, Dr. Nkosazana Dhlamini Zuma said Ghana is the only country to report back to the AU that it has completed the mechanisms.
“After we all agreed to have the passport, member states asked to be allowed to go back and put into place the mechanisms for the use of the passport. I am happy to announce that only one country, Ghana has reported back to the Commission that it has completed the mechanisms,” she said to applause from the gathering.
Dr. Zuma explained that the issuance of the passport would be decentralized to the individual member countries.
“The Commission is not going to print and issue the passports, the individual countries would print and issue their own versions, just like the ECOWAS passport. There is ECOWAS passport – Ghana or Nigeria or Togo, there would be the African Passport – Ghana and so on,” she said.
Dr. Zuma also commended Ghana for starting the visa-on-arrival scheme for all AU member countries. All AU member country passport holders can enter Ghana for an initial 90 days. Ghana started implementing the scheme recently.
The African passport would allow Africans to visit member countries visa-free and stay for an initial 30 days.
She however noted that some countries are resisting the African passport idea. They are insisting that even with the African passport, holders would still require visas to enter these countries. She declined to name these countries.
Dr. Zuma said, however that, while the AU can’t enforce these schemes, she warned that the AU would not visit these countries if they do not allow holders of the new passport to enter visa free.
Samples of the new e-passport would be issued to some Heads of States and foreign ministers during the Summit. The gesture is symbolic the AU says and to make the Heads of State see the importance of the passport and push for its implementation in their countries.
The 27th AU Summit being held at the newly built Kigali Convention Centre, the first meeting to be held at the Centre from July 10 to 18, 2016 is under the theme “Women rights, Human rights”.
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