The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has handed over decommissioned passport processing equipment valued at GH¢539,574 to the Ghana Refugee Board to support its humanitarian mandate.
The items comprise four passport printers, four lamination machines, four Canon cameras, one Epson receipt printer and two signature pads. They were previously used for processing biometric passports but became redundant following the Ministry's passport administration reforms and its transition to International Civil Aviation Organisation-compliant chip-embedded passports.
Together, the decommissioned equipment forms a complete biometric ID enrollment and production system, which the Ghana Refugee Board will now use to produce its own secure documents for asylum seekers and refugees. The equipment is expected to support the Board in registering, renewing and replacing IDs, reducing its reliance on external contractors and improving service delivery.
The presentation ceremony was held last Friday, August 21, at the Ministry in Accra.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who made the presentation, said the gesture reflected transparency and inter-agency collaboration. "For media purposes and in the spirit of transparency, these items are worth GH¢539,574.00. So, the auditors must know that they are no longer in our possession," he said. "We took good care of them and we've handed them to you and we know you will take very good care of them."
He said management had decided to honour a request from the Refugee Board for the equipment rather than allow it to gather dust and become obsolete, stressing that it had been tested and certified fully functional by the Ministry's IT Department.
Ablakwa commended the Ghana Refugee Board for its role in consular assistance and for positioning Ghana as a safe haven for people displaced by conflict, natural disasters and political instability, citing the country's hosting of Liberian refugees for over a decade at the Buduburam camp as part of Ghana's history of hospitality. He said supporting the Board reinforced Ghana's image as a nation committed to Pan-Africanism, good neighbourliness and international solidarity.
Acknowledging the Board's funding constraints following cuts to UNHCR support, Ablakwa said he had advocated in Parliament for increased resources for the Board and expressed hope the gesture would encourage other partners to offer support in cash or kind.
Receiving the items on behalf of the Board, its Executive Secretary, Nana Asare Bediako, expressed gratitude to the Ministry, saying the equipment would go a long way in improving service delivery to refugees amid the funding challenges the Board is facing. "We are hoping to do what we can to make sure our refugees are served better. We say thank you very much, and may the good Lord continue to bless you and your team," he said.
