The Parliament of Ghana has approved an increase of passport application fees.
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In a release by the Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Ministry, the passport fees for booklets with 32 pages will now cost GHS100 while fees for the newly introduced booklets with 48 pages will cost GHS150 effective February 1, 2020.
With expedited services, passport fees booklets with 32 pages has now been pegged at GHS150 and fees for booklets with 48 pages will now cost GHS200.
Initially, the cost of processing a passport in the country was GH¢50 and GH¢100 for regular and express services respectively.
But in 2019 there were mixed signals from the state on whether the price of acquiring passports would be reviewed upwards or downwards.
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It would be recalled that, in May 2019, the government hinted of a possible increment but in September 2019, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, said the government was working towards a possible reduction of the cost of obtaining a passport in Ghana
Increased Validity
The increments have been possible after the government extended the validity period the country’s ordinary passport booklets from 5 years back to 10 years.
The extension saw complaints by some Ghanaians that the five-year validity period was too short.
There came an online petition collecting signatures to get the government to increase the validity period received more than 10,000 endorsements.
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Initially, the passport booklets was to be valid for 10 years but it was changed to five years in a bid to conform to recommended standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization.
Other reviews
There is a review of fees required for the attestation of legal documents from GH¢25 to GH¢37.50.
Travel certificates will also now cost GH¢37 up from GH¢25.
