Why charge applicants GH¢2,000, GH¢3,000 for a passport? – Angry Foreign Affairs Minister asks

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, has gone berserk over the demand of GH¢2,000, GH¢3,000 by middlemen who connive with some staff for the acquisition of passport.

Describing it as wrong, the minister wondered how a GH¢100 standard service and a GH¢150 for expedited service be shot up astronomically to GH¢2000 and GH¢3000.

In an interview with the media after an unannounced visit to the passport office in Accra on Monday, August 14, 2023, she said, “Just two days ago, the reports in the Daily Guide newspaper that the issue of goro people involved in our passport acquisition process has become rife…It is wrong. How can One Hundred Ghana Cedis for standard service to acquire a passport and One Hundred and Fifty Cedis for expedited service be bumped up to GH¢2000 and GH¢3000, it is wrong.”

“The goro boys are outside the passport office, they need somebody inside to work with, they cannot do it on their own. People are paying GH¢2000, or GH¢3000 to acquire a passport? Why should this be so?” she queried.

Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey further authorized the sacking of overstaying officers and agency representatives at various passport offices in the Greater Accra region.

The move, according to her, comes as a response to growing concerns of alleged involvement in illicit activities and corrupt practices that have tarnished the reputation of the passport issuance system.

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