The Ghana Card, the National Identity Card will from today now be recognised as an e-passport in 44,000 airports globally.
The Ghana Card can now be read and verified in all International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) compliant borders.
What Is An “E-Passport”?
An E-passport, or electronic passport, is a regular passport booklet that contains an electronic chip in the cover. This chip contains the passport bearer’s information and provides an extra layer of security against passport fraud.
Unlike the Biometric Passport, the Ghana Card has an embedded chip that also contains all the personal data as a passport.
What Does This Mean?
Holders of the Ghana Card will be allowed to board any flight to Ghana by presenting it at border controls showing the card.
It also means that Ghanaians living or born in the diaspora will be able to board any flight to Ghana without any visa requirement if they have a Ghana Card.
Do You Still Need Your Regular Passport?
For now yes. You’ll need a visa with the standard passport for verification in countries that require a visa. The E-Passport can count as an ID for quick passes through border control.
Here’s a clearer statement from by the Vice President of Ghana:
Within ECOWAS, the Ghanacard can be used to travel to any country. Traveling outside ECOWAS however, will require that you use your normal biometric passport which will contain your visas. In the not too distant future, we expect that electronic visas will be issued under ICAO 2.0 protocols. When this starts, electronic visas could be issued on the Ghanacard under bilateral arrangements with other countries.
Dr. Bawumia
