<\/p>\n
Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia<\/strong><\/p>\n THE FORMALISATION of the additional role of the Ghana Card as a travel document last week has kept assigns of opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) busy with assortment of twists to the development.<\/p>\n Last Saturday\u2019s announcement by the Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL) about the takeoff of the e-passport on March 1, 2022 dealt a final blow to their enterprise.<\/p>\n The GACL announcement was contained in a press release regarding a directive to airlines and airports to allow holders of the Ghana Card to board flights heading for Ghana, which of course is the bottom-line of the role of the national ID document. The Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL) has directed all airports and airlines to allow Ghana-bound passengers, who hold the Ghana Card to board their flights from March 1, 2022.<\/p>\n The GACL directive was contained in a release on Saturday and it followed the \u2018Key Ceremony\u2019 held at the headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in Montreal, Canada, on February 9, 2022.<\/p>\n The GACL release acknowledged the international recognition of the Ghana Card as a valid ID card passport describing it as \u201ca Machine Readable Travel Document (MRTD) that can be read and verified by the ICAO Public Key Directory (PKD) at most airports.\u201d<\/p>\n The announcement adds that holders of the Ghana Card can head for Ghana without visas.<\/p>\n Twists Et Al<\/strong><\/p>\n Since the Montreal event, under the auspices of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), which recognised the role of the citizenship document, various stories have been released onto social media seeking to discredit the feat.<\/p>\n While some of these have been outright twists, others are the misinterpretation of the tweet from the ICAO.<\/p>\n The tweet the ICAO put out on Saturday suffered mischievous misinterpretations as NDC assigns went to town on social media with it, as it were, clapping their hands over what they read as a denial by the international organisation.<\/p>\n Following the many comments, especially misinterpretations about the Ghana Card\u2019s travel electronic role, the ICAO, it would appear, sought to set the records straight but this too, was twisted once more.<\/p>\n \u201cICAO is aware of recent and incorrect media reports claiming that ICAO has agreed that the Ghanaian ID card is equivalent to an E-Passport. \u201cHowever, it is not ICAO\u2019s role to certify the use of a state\u2019s identity card for international travel in place of a passport.\u201d<\/p>\n Continuing, the ICAO stated that \u201cit is the sovereign right of each individual state to decide upon its entry and exit, requirements and the documents that need to be presented by those travelling to and\/or from its territory.<\/p>\n \u201cA number of states worldwide accept specified national ID cards as identity documents during air travel based on bilateral agreement between issuing and receiving states. \u201cAny decision to accept such alternative travel identity documents is made by the receiving state itself.<\/p>\n \u201cGhana\u2019s successful conclusion of its key ceremony on February 9 is a major milestone in its efforts to provide for more international acceptance of its electronic travel documents.\u201d<\/p>\n Vice President\u2019s Office<\/strong><\/p>\n Dr. Gideon Boako, s<\/strong>pokesperson for the Vice President, in his reaction to the misinterpretation about the ICAO tweet, wrote \u201cjust like our current normal booklet, you will need ICAO to approve and capture the data into their Public Key Directory (PKD) for certification before any country can accept it as official travel documents.\u201d<\/p>\n Continuing, he stated that \u201cGhana has crossed this stage with respect to the Ghana Card making it officially certified as having the right qualities to be admissible by receiving countries as E-Passport, subject to country-to-country bilateral agreements.<\/p>\n \u201cThrough the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), official communication has gone to all border ports that Ghana as a receiving country, is accepting holders of the Ghana Card into Ghana.<\/p>\n \u201cThe statement by ICAO that Ghana has crossed the major milestone in efforts to provide for more international acceptance of its biometric electronic travel documents is therefore not inconsistent with official communication from government.<\/p>\n \u201cIn practical terms, the holder of a Ghana Card will be allowed to board a flight to Ghana (receiving country) from any airport, just as with the normal biometric passport, without the need for a visa.<\/p>\n \u201cAlso, Diasporan Ghanaians who hold the Ghana Card will not require a visa to travel to Ghana.<\/p>\n \u201cWithin ECOWAS, the Ghana Card can be used to travel to any country. Travelling outside ECOWAS will require that you use your normal biometric passport which will contain your visas.\u201d<\/p>\n In the not-too-distant future, he continued, \u201cwe expect that electronic visas will be used under ICAO 2.0 protocols. When this starts, electronic visas could be issued on the Ghana Card under bilateral arrangements with other countries.\u201d<\/p>\n Former NIA Boss<\/strong><\/p>\n Following the ICAO statement, former NIA boss, Yayra Koku, had this to say, \u201cWhen I tried to share my idea on this Ghana Card as having become an E-Passport, some of the NPP social media land guards decided to insult me, and even said I was jealous. How can I be jealous of something I was part of?\u00a0 Now read the ICAO tweet and read what I posted about three days ago, and tell me the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n Deputy Minister Of Foreign Affairs <\/strong><\/p>\n The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Kwaku Ampratwum Sarpong, was compelled to quickly make a denial when his remarks on the e-passport were deliberately presented as denying knowledge of the Ghana Card\u2019s role as a travel document.<\/p>\n \u201cMy attention has been drawn to an interview I granted Akroma FM<\/em> on Thursday morning which seeks to claim I stated that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has no knowledge of the project to transform Ghana Card to a traveling document or an E-Passport.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the records, at no stage of the interview did I say that.<\/p>\n \u201cWhoever is behind that story is being mischievous or can\u2019t translate the Twi language to good English.<\/p>\n \u201cIn fact, in the course of the interview I did mention that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is aware of the project. This project, however, was initiated and being managed by the Office of the Vice President and not the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is therefore difficult for me to be the person to give better and further particulars. At best, it\u2019s the Veep\u2019s office where the project managers are based. At no point did I deny knowledge of the project.<\/p>\n \u201cI plead with those of you who have elected to go to town with an inverted story to kindly locate and listen to the interview.\u201d<\/p>\n Felix Ofosu Kwakye<\/strong><\/p>\n Former Deputy Minister for Communications in the erstwhile NDC administration, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, had earlier rejected claims by the Vice President that the Ghana Card from this year will become an electronic travel document.<\/p>\n The Vice President dropped a hint about the future role of the Ghana Card as a travel document during his speech on government\u2019s digitisation initiatives at Ashesi University last year.<\/p>\n He said that the Ghana Card will be recognised as a valid travel document in about 197 countries and numerous airports in the world.<\/p>\n Touting some of the benefits of the initiative, the Vice President revealed that holders of the Ghana Card will not need to obtain visas when travelling to Ghana among a number of benefits.<\/p>\n But reacting to these claims by the Vice President in his Facebook post, Felix Ofosu Kwakye noted that this assertion by the Vice President cannot be true.<\/p>\n \u201cNo Ghanaian requires a visa to enter Ghana. Simply brandishing a Ghanaian passport allows your entry without visa,\u201d the NDC stalwart declared.<\/p>\n He continued that the Ghana Card is not a viable document which can perform the functions of a passport. According to him, the Ghana Card at best is \u201csuperfluous and redundant.\u201d<\/p>\n He stressed that Ghanaians who want to travel outside Ghana will still need a visa with the exception of other West African countries or a country with visa-free arrangement with Ghana.<\/p>\n Various NDC defenders had spoken on radio on similar lines. These persons are responsible for the assortment of twists to the ICAO statement.<\/p>\n The ICAO tweet, there is no doubt, was informed by the various interpretations to the Montreal event and the merits of the new role of the Ghana Card.<\/p>\n For those who said the Ghana Card was superfluous and could never play the role as hinted by the Vice President, this is the time for them to express remorse and clap for the feat achieved. Will they?<\/p>\n By A.R. Gomda<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia THE FORMALISATION of the additional role of the Ghana Card as a travel document last week has kept assigns of opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) busy with assortment of twists to the development. Last Saturday\u2019s announcement by the Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL) about the takeoff of the e-passport on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":177550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-990017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=990017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990017\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=990017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=990017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=990017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}