Asamankese, Feb. 23, GNA - Passport holders have been advised against rushing for the new Ghanaian Biometric passport until the validity of their current passports have expired.

The advice was given at a public forum at Asamankese by Mr Akwasi Amankwah, Eastern Regional Information Officer, who said the current passports remained valid until January 01, 2015. Speaking on the issue as part of a sensitization campaign on the Biometric Passport, Mr Amankwah said the new passport would help eliminate passport contractors and the practice of multiple acquisitions of passports. The regional information officer said the new passport is meant to prevent identify theft and fraud. It would also make simple the verification of identity and proof of ownership.

Additionally, the new system is in compliance with the International Civil Aviation Organization Directive, which enjoins all nations to go metric by 2010. The new passport has the emblem or the logo of the Economic Commission of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Ghana Coat of Arms. The biometric passport carries biological information that links the holder to the document and has permanent features that cannot be altered or changed.

It has security, biometric and demographic features with the security features both visible and invincible, Mr Amankwah explained. The biometric features are the finger print, signature and photographs and the demographic features are personal data including name, date of birth and home town.

The Eastern Regional Commander of the Immigration Service, Mr Divine Narlobie, explained that because of financial constraints only seven passport application centres would process the biometric passport initially. However, the entire nation would be covered in due time.