The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, has addressed the issue of passport processing delay in the country by saying there is a shortage for passport booklet.
The minister has however assured all applicants who are yet to receive their passports due to the current passport booklets that they will get them soon.
She further said that the current passport booklet shortage is caused by the supply bottlenecks created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the minister, the government is trying to resolve this problem by acquiring 300,000 booklets.
Sharing her statement;
We normally would order our booklets in advance. When we get to a certain level of supply, we order the next batch of booklets. Unfortunately, because of COVID and the supply chain issues that have occurred as a result, we are having difficulties with our booklets coming in.
…we have booklets in stock, but the booklets that we have in stock are less than demand. Fortunately, we will receive booklets around the 13th of this month, way more than what is in backlog.
We are expecting over 300,000 this month. I believe the backlog is about 90,000, we have some in stock to take care of emergencies and expedited service and so on.
The shortage of passport booklets started in January 2022.
