The passport application, a right entitled to every Ghanaian, has increasingly been associated with corruption, largely due to the centralised nature of its issuance.
To address this, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, announced that all regions currently without a passport application centre will have one operational by December 2025. Seven regions remain without centres, and this initiative is part of a broader effort to decentralise services and improve nationwide accessibility.
Ablakwa noted that reforms within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have also enhanced the process, with applicants now receiving passports via courier services. This eliminates the need for long, stressful trips to collection centres and reduces opportunities for illegal agents to exploit the system by charging inflated fees.
The decentralisation move is expected to curb corruption linked to passport acquisition and is widely welcomed by Ghanaians.
Regional diplomacy update
In a related development, ECOWAS Resident Representative in Ghana, Ambassador Mohammed Lawan Gana, stated that the bloc is intensifying diplomatic engagement with Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. The three countries recently formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), presenting ECOWAS with a rival structure pursuing different geopolitical and external partnerships.
ECOWAS’s choice to sustain engagement rather than sever ties reflects a pragmatic strategy aimed at regional integration and cooperation despite competing interests.
