Ghana has received an improved E-Visa system that will be placed at the airport and the Ghana Immigration Service Data Centers before the end of the year. This will modernize visa application and issue of e-visas.
The last phase of the e-visa project, which began in 2020, comprises the installation of the appropriate technology that will read the data of visa applicants from across the globe into a database, allowing the Ghana Immigration Service to approve or refuse visas at the source.
Foreign Affairs Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchway said in an interview with TV3 during the introduction of the Site Acceptance Test (SAT) that the new system would boost the security characteristics of Ghana’s visa regime.
“The new system will have all your relevant data just like the visas you get when you apply to the UK or the US. That’s what we’re starting with. We need to able to get a good data base of the people who come here. Our systems in our missions abroad and immigration in Ghana need to be synchronized to prevent people from faking our visas.
“The current visa stickers we use are hand written and it’s a major problem for us where some people are even able to fake our visas and its difficult for us to detect. This will be a thing of the past,” she noted.
Ghana’s embassies in London, United Kingdom, and Berlin, Germany, will be the first to begin granting e-visas to applicants traveling to Ghana after the successful installation and subsequent testing of the equipment in Ghana.
After the trial period, this will be implemented in all of Ghana’s overseas missions. The Foreign Minister said “when we have a good data base of people who are frequent visitors the decision will be made on when to start issuing electronic visas.”
According to the Ghana Immigration Service, the new method would accelerate the application process and aid in the rapid identification and prevention of unscrupulous people attempting to enter Ghana.
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Michael Amoako Atta, Head of Public Relations of the Ghana Immigration Service told TV3 the new system will also help protect and secure data gathered from applicants and “access the system to get any information needed of suspicious individuals which can then be sent to the national security for further investigations. It will also help us safeguard the country and prevent unwanted miscreants.”
Ghana will become the fifth African country to issue e-visas by the end of the year, joining over 60 nations that already do so.
SOURCE: 3NEWS
