86,000 passports uncollected – Osafo-Maafo laments

Senior Presidential Advisor, Yaw Osafo-Maafo has expressed concern about the huge numbers of uncollected passports at the various passport centres in the country.

Speaking during an Update on Results Achieved Under the Public Sector Reform Project, the Senior Presidential Advisor revealed that a total of 86,000 passports remain uncollected, a situation he describes as problematic.

“We are faced with a problem that we ourselves don’t understand. A number of people do not come to collect the passport. People are so anxious and do whatever they can to get the passport but after they have gone through to produce the passport they don’t come to collect it.

"These centers have these uncollected passports. Takoradi alone has 8,000, Cape Coast has 8,696, Accra has 19,500 passports uncollected.

"Because we subsidize the production of these passports – we are printing for people at about $4.00 when we should be printing them for $100. So it means the subsidy of all these passports is locked up capital of government.”

The former Minster for Finance described government’s investments in all these subsidized passport as a big problem.

“We did a quick count this morning and found out that we have a total of about 86,000 passports uncollected," he added.