The Passport Situation in Ghana

Somewhere in 2020 until now, people leave Ghana everyday like it is plagued with a curse and almost certain to perish soon. It probably is with the things are going, especially if they don’t change. But many things come into play to select who leaves and who stays.

Opportunities count. If there’s nothing for you outside Ghana, you most definitely don’t have a reason to leave. Unless of course, it’s for a short break, holiday or vacation. But even then, you’re not really LEAVING, just going for a holiday.

As more people leave and want to leave, that puts a pressure on the passport application and issuing process, turning what used to be a convenient system into a nightmare for many people.

And as usual, you know what happens when something is in demand: price goes ballistic!

A very interesting thing about University is that whiles you’re in it, you enjoy some unobvious privileges you might not think matter. You find out after graduating how stupid you were for not taking advantages of some of these privileges.

Story time

About two years ago when I was in Uni, my friend @zzzinnn was the National Union of Ghana students (NUGS) president of my school. He had this campaign where he organized a passport application service for subsidized costs but fast-tracked timelines. At this time, even though the cost of passports was not as crazy yet, it was still quite a cost.

Unfortunately, when he was organizing this, I didn’t have the money to do a passport at the time. You know, if I’m being completely honest, I probably would’ve gotten the money if I was really interested. But at the time, I didn’t really see the need for a passport because I was blinded by the Uni experience and didn’t think I’d ever have use for one in the near future.

Funny thing is that I helped him work on the passports for some of the students whiles I myself sat idle and watched. I don’t quite remember how much it costed at the time, but I think they payed GHC 120 (around $12 at the time).

2 years later…

…and here stands an informed me, utterly disappointed in my choice of not haven attempted to secure one whiles I was in school.

In my quest to obtain a passport, I can’t express the mix of emotions I experienced.

Excitement

Somewhere in the last quarter of 2023, I talked with my big brother about my need for a passport now and he mentioned how he had a friend who helped he get his own passport within 3 weeks.

Considering that my need for a passport at the time seemed urgent, I asked him to connect us up so he’d work on mine as well. I was excited!

Anticipation

I talked with the agent my brother connected me to I think about a week before I left for Lead for Ghana’s Residential Institute in October last year. From our conversation, he assured me the passport would be ready by the time I returned to Tamale. Was that what happened?

Disappointment

In this life, there are about 3 people you can’t trust to deliver as promised- a tailor, and an agent (of whatever kind). The list I just gave were only a tailor and … until my experience last year when I added the agent. I’ll leave the details of my disappointment to your imagine.

Anger, Blame, Acceptance

After excuses and stories for the next 4 months (yeah, 4) I got really really angry. On one hand, I was angry at my brother because he led me to this guy. On the other, I was furious at the agent himself, and finally I blamed myself because ultimately, it was I who approved to move forward with him.

Hope

At some point, I forgot of the agent because what I thought I needed the passport for bounced. And about a month later, he reached informing me the passport was ready in Accra and would be in Tamale shortly. At this point I was just like mehhh

The passport situation in Ghana now

In truth, I don’t really blame the agent much. The passport system in Ghana has gotten really choked right now. So much that the Foreign Affairs Minister even came out to announce and plead that citizens who don’t have dire need for passports simply shouldn’t get one, because passports are no longer the primary means of identification within the country.

_{Image was taken from Tv3’s X page}

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Oh did I mention I paid GHC 1500 (around $112) for the passport? Just 2 years later and I paid over to 10x what I would’ve gotten it for in school. So if you’re still in university and are lucky enough that your SRC or any student body organizes a passport application campaign or anything similar, be sure to take full advantage of it. Trust me, you don’t want to be telling me story a year or two after school.

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All unsourced images are mine

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