Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the Vice President of the Republic of Ghana said his government is making efforts to get the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to recognize the Ghana-Card as an e-passport by the first quarter of 2022. According to him, the efforts are to allow the Ghana Card to be read and verified in ICAO compliant countries and enable holders of the card to board flights to 197 countries and 44,000 airports worldwide. Dr. Bawumia added that Ghanaians living outside the country who are holding the Ghana-Card would not obtain visas to travel to the country any longer. “ It is not widely known that the Ghana card is also an electronic passport (e-passport) that contains the biometric information that can be used to authenticate the identity of travelers. We have been working with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) this year to globally activate the e-passport function of the Ghana card and I am happy to announce that on 13th October 2021, Ghana officially became the 79th member of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Public Key Directory (PKD) community. The ICAO Public Key Directory (PKD) is a central repository for exchanging the information required to authenticate e- passports. “The PKD allows border control authorities to confirm in less than ten seconds that the e-passport was issued by the right authority, has not been altered, and is not a copy or cloned document. Ghana’s Country Signing Certificate Authority would therefore soon be imported into the ICAO PKD System through what is known as a Key ceremony. The Key Ceremony for Ghana will be held at the ICAO headquarters in Montreal Canada hopefully by the 1st quarter of 2022. “This means that the Ghanacard will be recognized as an e-passport and can be read and verified in all ICAO compliant borders (in 197 countries and 44,000 airports in the world). When this happens, holders of the Ghana card will be allowed to board any flight to Ghana. Furthermore, the good news for diasporan Ghanaians is that when the Ghana Immigration Service is linked to the NIA architecture diasporan Ghanaians who hold the Ghanacard should not have to obtain visas to travel to Ghana. We expect this to be operational by the end of the first quarter of next year. Ghana is one of the few countries in the world where the national ID card is also an e-passport. “The Ghanacard is also being linked with existing passports so that travel history will be preserved. The Ghana card is already valid for travel to all ECOWAS countries. I should note that the national ID project was executed by the NIA in collaboration with a world-class Ghanaian private sector firm, (IMS) Margins. So proud of them.” Dr. told Ghanaians during the digitization lecture on Tuesday 2, November, 2021. Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana/Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 05555568093