It begin with Ghana’s missions in London and Berlin.

The new development followed the installations and integration of Visa Station and Server Equipment in the missions which is expected to be synchronised with that of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) servers, to enable the GIS process biometric data of all visitors before their arrival in the country.

Unlike before, when visas where issued to foreigners in writing and embedded with a stamp and getting clearance upon arrival, the new process would have to get security clearance from the GIS, before issuance of the improved security sticker on a visitor’s passport.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ms Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, disclosed this yesterday in Accra, when she received the technical team from OrellFüssli Security Printing Limited (OFS).

She explained that the team was in the country for the installation of the visa equipment as well as embark on a Site Acceptance Test exercise, at the headquarters of the GIS and Kotoka International Airport.

Ms Botchwey said, in February, 2020 the government signed a Technical Support Agreement with OrellFüssli Security Printing Limited (OFS) and TGN Digital Security Limited for the supply of machine-readable visa stickers, and the deployment of an e-visa hardware personalisation system for the country.

“In furtherance of the implementation of this agreement, following the factory Acceptance Test (FAT) visit, the existing service providers have successfully integrated their systems with that of the OFS for the deployment of the new visa system and there were initial pilot runs of the system at our Berne and Copenhagen missions following the integration exercise,” she noted.

The Comptroller-General of GIS, Mr Kwame AsuahTakyi revealed that the Service had taken delivery of visa stickers, three visa issuing station, server equipment, visa stations and server equipment.

These would be installed at the Kotoka International Airport and the GIS Data Centre by the close of the week, including training of some personnel on how to operate them.