Accra, March 24, – Mrs Ursula
Owusu-Ekuful, the Minister of Communications, has inaugurated seven biometric
e-Gates at the International Arrival Hall of the Kotoka International Airport
(KIA).
Two other e-Gates are being
installed at the Departure Hall, while in the near future others would be
installed at the new Terminal Three after Airport construction works are
completed.
The e-Gates provide automatic
border control solution and ease peak traffic workload for immigration.
The e-Gates allow travellers to
use their passports to automatically enter and exit the country and it would
also cater for Registered Traveller Programmes and for regular passenger
processing.
This new system would be
replacing the PISCES System, which only does identification.
The new system also supports the
functionality of boarder control by performing identification, authentication
and verification.
The entire project costs 18
million dollars and is being sponsored by the Communications Ministry.
It covers the KIA, the Ghana
Immigration Service (GIS) Headquarters and subsidiary offices, Disaster
Recovery, the two sea ports at Tema and Takoradi, three land borders at Paga in
the Upper East Region, Aflao in the Volta Region and Elubo in the Western Region.
Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said the
Communications Ministry was supporting the deployment of the e-Immigration
solution as part of the Government’s digitisation agenda and for the GIS
enhanced service delivery by facilitating the exchange of information.
She described the e-Gates as a
total integrated e-Immigration system that was capable of regulating entry and
exit from Ghana.
She said it would provide a case
management system to process permits and also meet the current and future needs
of the GIS.
“We should, therefore, look
forward to an improvement in the quality of service they offer to the public,”
she said.
Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said the focus
of the e-Immigration system was the provision of an end-to-end integration of
border control operations, permit and visa management systems, business
processes including document and record management, web-enabled system,
improved and efficient information technology infrastructure and
interconnection with key stakeholders.
She said it was the expectation
of Government that the GIS would make optimum use of new improved Secure Border
Management System, specially developed for Ghana that conforms to global
standards and completely migrate from the present PISCE System.
“I entreat all the stakeholders
to engage in extensive public education to enable the public to avail
themselves of this innovation,” she said.
She commended other institutions,
which were collaborating in the execution of the project namely the Ministry of
the Interior, the Ministry of Aviation, the GIS, the Ghana Airports Company
Limited (GACL), the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority and the contractors
(Gemalto, Josanti and Dart Company).
Mrs Cecilia Dapaah, the Minister
of Aviation, said: “We are particularly elated that this thing is now being commissioned
to start work. We all want to see people go through a seamless arrival process;
thus they would go and sell Ghana out.”
She said the project was part of
the process to lessen the hustle of travelling adding that it was in line with
government's vision to ensure efficiency at the KIA.
Mr John Dekyem Attafuah, the
Managing Director, GACL, said the inauguration of the project was a major
milestone in the history of the aviation industry in Ghana.
“It is our hope that the GIS
would let this service operate efficiently,” he added.
Mr Eric Afari, the Deputy
Commissioner of GIS, said: “It is our desire and hope that this gate will be
put to good use so that it will have the full benefit for Ghana.”
“We believe that after this
inauguration, Ghanaians would be encouraged to enrol so that we take about 57
per cent of all the travellers who come here to the e-Gate and then free the
rest of the electronic booths for the non-Ghanaians,” he added.
He said the overall effect would
be to reduce the processing time and make it stress free at the KIA.
GNA
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