Demand for passports in the three regions of the north continues to soar, with the passport office in Tamale issuing some 4,632 passports in the first quarter of 2016 as against 3,363 issued in the last quarter of 2015.

In January, February, March and April 2016, the passport application centre in Tamale, which caters to the three regions of the north, issued 1,035, 1,041, 1,206 and 1,350 passports respectively.

In 2015, the figures for September, October, November, and December stood at 684, 783, 910 and 988 respectively.

Alhaji Abdul Malik Adam Gariba, Officer in charge of the Northern Regional Passport Application Centre, told the B&FT that with a large Muslim population which embarks on the Hajj every year, it is only natural demand for passports will be high in the north.

The centre, he said, has been sensitising the Muslim community about the need for potential pilgrims to apply early for their passports to avoid delays.

He said Hajj agencies have been educated on the need to process their clients’ documents in time to avoid any difficulties in processing passports for the applicants and prevent any hindrance.

He advised that people renew their passports six months to expiration, since most embassies do not accept passports that have six months to expire.

He noted that with introduction of the biometric system, documents do not have to be transported to the head office for processing as was the case before.

The introduction of a biometric system, he said, has facilitated the processing of passports and helped to check fraud and double-ownership of passports by certain persons in the country.

The government of Ghana on September 18, 2009 commenced the issuance of machine-readable biometric Diplomatic and Service Passports -- which is in conformity with regulations of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and also the desire to improve security of passports.

The issuance of passports was a requirement for the country to meet the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) deadline for member-states to provide their nationals with such a document to avoid being denied entry into member countries of ICAO.

A biometric passport has features like an electronic chip into which has been processed the thumbprint of holders, and is kept at a biometric centre. It has a holographic foil, watermark paper, invisible and visible foil, and digital photographs of holders are used.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Alhaji Malik Adam said, is developing an online application for passports to ease congestion at the various application centres.

Applicants, he said, will only visit the application centres for their fingerprints and pictures to be taken, and for the original copies of their documents to be scanned.