Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, the minister of foreign affairs, has reassured Ghanaians that her department is working to address the issue of a lack of passport booklets at the various passport offices throughout the nation.

According to her, the ministry is working assiduously to clear all backlogs as far as issuing the passport booklet is concerned.

The Minister made these remarks during a working visit to some passport offices in the Greater Accra Passport Application Centre at Tema Station and the passport head office at Ridge on Monday, October 3, 2022, after reports that there had been a shortage of passports across offices in the country.

“Some go back many months, and I wanted to see this for myself, and I have seen it, and we will make sure that as soon as the booklet comes, we will work day and night to print all the backlog and clear the backlog so that those who want to travel can do so,” she said.

She noted that “by the middle of this month-October, in about a week or so, we should have enough to clear the backlog.”

Mrs. Botchwey guaranteed that by the end of October, there would be more passport booklets in stock “to take us beyond the end of the year into the next quarter.”

She noted, however, that, after her interaction with some affected applicants, she believes the challenge is with the collection process of the booklet.

And in cases of emergency, the minister called on applicants to make it known to officials in charge. This, she said, is because provisions have been made for such purposes.

“We are expecting over 300,000 this month. I believe the backlog is about 90,000. We have some in stock to take care of emergencies and expedited service, and so on,” the minister assured.

Since January 2022, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration has been announcing the shortage of passport booklets.

In January 2022, it announced the shortage of 33-page passport booklets. Currently, all passport booklets, including the 48-page passport booklets, are reported to be in short supply as well.

Source: The Independent Ghana