Bawumia settles debate on link between Ghana card and passports

The Vice President of Ghana, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, says Ghana is now a member of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

By this membership, he indicates that by the end of the first quarter of 2022, airports around the globe will be able to read the Ghana Card and all information loaded on the card.

This according to him, will afford Ghanaians who are everywhere across the globe the opportunity to present their e-passport (Ghana Card linked with their passports) when they do not have their physical cards.

On electronic visas, the Vice President indicated that currently, the visas being used are ICAO 1.0 hence visas cannot be issued electronically but when there is an upgrade to ICAO 2.0, visas will be issued electronically on the Ghana card.

“As I said before, we’ve become a member, the 79th member of the ICAO PKD Community and this will allow by the end of the first quarter next year airports to be able to read the card and the information on the card. All airports pretty much anywhere in the world.”

It doesn’t mean that you don’t need your physical passport to travel. We will get to the stage where we can have agreements, right now what is happening is we are linking every passport with the national ID card ie the Ghana card number, and the passport number will be linked so that your travel history is preserved.

“Currently in terms of visas you have ICAO 1.0 in operation, when it comes to 2.0 you’ll get electronic visas but we are not there yet and since we are not there yet you are going to travel on your normal passport but you can always present your e-passport for verification and if you are stuck anywhere in the world and you need to come to Ghana and you don’t have your manual passport and you have your e-passport you’ll be allowed to board your flight as long as it is coming to Ghana. When ICAO 2.0 comes into operation, the visas can actually be issued electronically on the Ghana card when it comes into operation but we are not there yet,” he said at Ashesi University where he delivered a lecture on digitalisation.