General News of Friday, 12 August 2022
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
2022-08-12Ghana Card is limited as a travel document – Dep. Foreign Affairs Minister
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kwaku Ampratwum Sarpong
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kwaku Ampratwum Sarpong, has explained that the Ghana Card – in its current form – has limited capabilities to replace a passport and or serve as a travel document.
In a video making the rounds on social media and believed to have been recorded in the United Kingdom, the deputy Minister said the national card
Read full articlecan be used mostly when a person is traveling into Ghana.
He stressed that the generalized view that the card could be used for all manner of travel had generated some confusion among the public.
“When travelling to Ghana with the Ghana Card, that will take you to Ghana but it cannot bring you back. That is very important, it can take you in but it will serve as proof that you are a Ghanaian.
“But you cannot use it… there was a bit of a confusion somewhere along the line, that you can use the Ghana Card to travel, when you generalize it, it creates problems,” he stated at a meeting with Ghana’s High Commissioner to the UK, Papa Owusu Ankomah, in attendance.
GhanaWeb could not independently verify when the comments were made.
“You can only use it to travel when you are going to Ghana, even in some countries where they have not agreed to that bilateral arrangement, their immigration will not allow you to pass through their system,” he added.
The Ghana Card has been touted as a major plank of the digitalization agenda being led by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia. It’s use as a travel document became a matter of heated public debate.
Bawumia made comments to the effect in February this year, which comments were found to be misleading by Ghana Fact. His comments were after the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), admitted the card into its Public Key Directory, PKD, community.
He later clarified the scope of the card at the launch of Accra Business IT programme held in Accra on Thursday, July 14, 2022.
He said, “Ghanaians in the diaspora were bearing the problem and cost of the acquisition of visa by diaspora Ghanaians, many have lost passports in the process of applying for visas from Ghanaian embassies abroad.
“But we have obtained ICAO certification for the Ghana Card to be used as a travel document for travel to Ghana from abroad without the need for a visa."
SARA
