The national identification card, commonly known as the ‘Ghana Card‘, will allow holders to travel across about 97 borders and 44,000 airports throughout the world.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has given its seal of approval for the Ghana Card to be recognized globally as a valid e-passport.
At a ceremony, held at the headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organization in Montreal in Canada on Wednesday, February 9, 2022, Ghana was officially presented with the certificate to make the Ghana Card an e-passport to be accepted at 44,000 airports across the globe.
Ransford Sowah, Ghana’s High Commissioner to Canada, received the token, which denoted Ghana’s recognition by the International Civil Aviation Organization while speaking at the occasion.
Ransford Sowah explained that to provide an inclusive Akwaaba experience to all children and descendants of our country, holders of the Ghana Card can board any flight to Ghana without a visa requirement.
“This makes Ghana one of the few countries in the world where the national ID card also has an e-passport capability,” he said.
Last year, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia said ICAO will recognise the Ghana Card as an e-passport by the first quarter in 2022, a promise the government has fulfilled.
The efforts are to allow Card to be read and verified in ICAO compliant countries and enable holders of the card to board flights to 197 countries and 44,000 airports worldwide.
Additionally, Ghanaian diasporans who are holding the Ghana-Card would not obtain visas to travel to the country.
On October 13, 2021, Ghana officially became the 79th member of the ICAO Public Key Directory community, he stated.
The ICAO Public Directory is a central repository for exchanging the information required to authenticate e-passports.
This will allow border control collaborators to confirm in less than 10 seconds that the e-passport was issued by the right authority.
