Ghana to join the global e-Passport regime with Ghana Card in 2022 – Bawumia

Ghana to join the global e-Passport regime with Ghana Card in 2022 – Bawumia

The Vice President of the Republic of Ghana Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has said that Ghana Card will be recognized as an e-Passport worldwide in 2022.

Several media channels in the world have reported on the evolution of smart travelling being championed by the use of Electronic Passports.

Ghana in 2017 revamped its National Identification system resulting in the issuance of an electronic card that contains the biometric data of the cardholder to all Ghanaians.

During his #DigiTimeInGhana speech at the Ashesi University, the Vice President, Dr. Bawumia revealed that the Ghana card is going to be used as an e-Passport in 2022 when the world introduces the new smart travelling protocol.

This according to him means that your Ghana Card which bears your national ID number and contains your biometric data can be used for immigration transactions at the various international airports in the world.

“By the end of the first quarter of 2022, the Ghana Card will be recognized as an e-Passport in 179 countries”, he said. “When this is done, Ghanaians in the diaspora would not need a visa to return to Ghana”, he added.

When a question was posed to the Vice President about how a visa is going to be issued on the Ghana Card when it replaces the paper passport we currently use, he said; “when the new version of the smart travelling protocol is introduced, embassies will issue digital visas, and these digital visas can directly be issued onto the Ghana Card, and the data can be read at any airport with special devices.”