Ghanaian Passports

Ghanaian passports are issued exclusively by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration to Ghanaians granted citizenship in accordance with the Ghanaian nationality law. There are three types of passport booklets – contemporary (regular), service, and diplomatic passports. Ghanaian passport booklets are valid for travel by Ghanaians anywhere in the world, although the holder may need to obtain a visa from the destination country when travelling for some purposes. More than one valid Ghanaian passport of the same type may not be held.

To facilitate the application for and acquisition of Ghanaian passports, Passport Application Centers (PACs) have been set up around the major cities of Ghana, including Accra, Kumasi, Tamale, Ho, Sekondi-Takoradi, and in Sunyani. 22 Diplomatic Missions outside Ghana have the mandate as of November 2020, to issue Biometric Passports to Ghanaians who are abroad. 

History

Under the Independence Act of 1957, the Gold Coast and Ashanti Colonies, Northern Territories of the Gold Coast Protectorate and British Togoland were merged into the new independent nation of Ghana on 6 March 1957. The 1957 Constitution of Ghana provided that nationality would be defined in law, and subsequently the Ghana Nationality and Citizenship Act was promulgated on 11 May 1957.

A New Ghanaian Constitution was drafted in 1960 and a Nationality Act (No. 62) was passed in 1961, but neither changed the nationality provisions. In 1967 the Ghana Nationality Decree granted nationality retrospectively to 6 March 1957, including those who had been omitted by the previous date discrepancy. It also removed the provision that a father or grandfather had to have been born in one of the Ghanaian territories which existed prior to independence. The change conferred upon the substantial community of Lebanese persons, who had been living in one of the former Ghanaian colonies or protectorates but who had not had a father or paternal grandfather born there, Ghanaian nationality. According to the 1958 British Nationality Act, those persons had retained their status as British subjects and continued to do so even after they were granted Ghanaian nationality.

To conform to the recommended standards (i.e., size, composition, layout, technology) set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Ghana has issued biometric passports as standard since March 2010, though existing non-biometric passports were valid until November 2015.

In December 2018, the Government of Ghana introduced a new Premium Passport Application Centre, located at the Accra Digital Centre, to process online passport applications faster. The Premium Passport Application Centre enables applicants to go through the passport application process within 30 minutes for an additional charge.

Passports issued for applications received starting 31 March 2019 have a validity period of ten years (it was previously five years).

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration has introduced a 48 page passport booklet ( It was previously 32 pages only ) available from 1 February 2020. 

Ghanaian Passport abroad

Visa requirements for Ghanaian citizens are administrative entry restrictions by the authorities of other states placed on citizens of Ghana. As of the 3rd quarter in 2021, Ghanaian citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 64 countries and territories, ranking the Ghanaian passport 84th in terms of travel freedom (tied with passports from Cuba, Morocco and Armenia) according to the Henley Passport Index