Ranking Member of Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, Samuel A.
Jinapor, has issued a scathing critique of the government's recent re-launch of Ghana's chip-embedded passport initiative, describing it as an "unnecessary" and intended to mislead the public and claim undue credit. In a strongly worded statement on behalf of the Minority Caucus, the Damongo MP described the April 28, 2025, event as a politically motivated attempt to rebrand an already completed project initiated under the former Akufo-Addo-led administration."This re-launch is entirely unnecessary and serves no functional purpose," Jinapor said. "It is a needless drain on public funds-an orchestrated effort to hijack a project that was not only conceptualised but fully executed by the Akufo-Addo Government before it left office in January 2025." According to Jinapor, the chip-embedded passport programme was not a newly launched initiative, but rather one that had been formally unveiled on December 2, 2024, when President Akufo-Addo and other top government officials were issued their own upgraded passports.
At that point, 50,000 booklets were already in stock, and an additional 200,000 had been ordered for the nationwide rollout.
The lawmaker traced the roots of the initiative back to the 2013 directive by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), which urged member states to upgrade travel identification systems.
