Ghana card cannot be a viable travel document – Kwakye Ofosu challenges Bawumia

A former Deputy Minister of Communications, Felix Ofosu Kwakye, has refuted claims by Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia that the Ghana Card will be recognized globally as an electronic passport by the end of the first quarter of 2022.

“The Ghana Card, which is a unique biometric identification card, will be accepted as an e-passport in 197 borders globally and 44,000 airports in the world,” the Vice President said on Tuesday night (November 2, 2021) when he delivered a public lecture at Ashesi University at Berekuso, in the Eastern Region.

He was speaking on the theme “Transforming An Economy Through Digitalization- The Ghana Story”.

When this happens, holders of the Ghana card will be allowed to board any flight to Ghana by just showing the card, according to the vice-president.

This follows Ghana’s official acceptance on October 13, 2021, as the 79th member of the ICAO’s Public Key Directory (PKD) community.

The ICAO Public Key Directory (PKD) is a central repository for exchanging the information required to authenticate e-passports.

But reacting to the claims, the former deputy minister said “no Ghanaian requires a visa to enter Ghana”

According to him, the Ghana card cannot be a viable travel document. At best, it is superfluous and redundant.

“Let us get serious and stop allowing persons who have mismanaged the economy to shift attention onto meager offerings that come nowhere near addressing the disastrous economic situation we find ourselves in he said in a Facebook post.

Below is a link to the full text of the vice-president’s speech.

[Full text] Bawumia lists govt achievements in the digital sector at public lecture