The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) has announced that the Ghana Card will, from today March 1, 2022, be recognised as eligible document to admit Ghanaian passengers and dual nationals returning to Ghana.
The GIS’s announcement follows the official recognition of the Ghana Card as an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)-compliant travel document to officially recognise the Ghana Card as a Machine Readable Travel Document (MRTD).
A statement released by the Head of Public Affairs Department of the Service, Supt. Michael Amoako-Atta, said the Ghana Card would serve as an optional travel document.
He, however, indicated that until bilateral agreements were signed with other countries, the Ghana Card could not be used to travel outside the ECOWAS sub-region.
Procedures
The statement also emphasised that Ghanaians who had renounced their Ghanaian citizenship to obtain the citizenship of another country are not eligible to travel on the Ghana Card.
Touching on entry procedures, Supt. Amoako-Atta explained that there shall be designed booths at the Kotoka International Airport to process Ghanaian passengers who travel on the Ghana Card into Ghana.
“Upon arrival, the identity of the GhanaCard holder will be verified against the National Identity Register (NIR). Once the passenger’s identity has been successfully verified, the passenger is admitted into the country,” he said in the statement.
On departure procedure, he stated that a Ghanaian who enters Ghana with the Ghana Card will be required to show the Ghana Card to the Immigration officials at the Immigration Departure Control.
The Service cautioned that passengers who arrive in Ghana with a fraudulently acquired or a fake Ghana Card will be denied entry, arrested and prosecuted in accordance with applicable laws.
“It is an offence under Section 52 of Immigration Act, 2000 (Act 573) for a person to fraudulently acquire or use a forged or fake travel document and convicted offenders may be fined and or imprisoned,” the statement added.
Valid
Dr Gideon Boako, Economic Policy Advisor and Spokesperson of the Vice-President, on February 13, 2022, had called on Ghanaians to ignore the wrong interpretation of a statement from the International Civil Aviation Organisation.
Some people had sought to claim that the ICAO had said the Ghana Card cannot be used as e-passport.
He explained that, just like the current normal booklet passport, one will need ICAO to approve and capture the data into their Public Key Directory (PKD) for certification before any country can accept it as official travel documents.
“Such key ceremony certification, as was done on February 9 in the case of the GhanaCard, is the ultimate step to take before any national identity card/passport can be used for travelling purposes,” he had noted in a statement.
According to him, Ghana had crossed that stage with respect to the Ghana Card, which made it officially certified as having the right qualities to be admissible by receiving countries as e-passport subject to country-to-country bilateral agreements.
“Through the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), official communication has gone to all border ports that Ghana, as a receiving country, is accepting holders of the GhanaCard into Ghana. The statement by ICAO that Ghana has crossed the major millstone in efforts to provide for more international acceptance of its biometric electronic travel documents is therefore not inconsistent with official communication from government,” he had noted.
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