By Mohamed Kallon
The Deputy Chief Immigration Officer, Amadu Bah has said that one of the key deliveries for the 2024 Financial Year is to digitalise the immigration department whereby applying for passport will be easier.
Mr. Bah made this disclosure yesterday at the ongoing budget hearing at the Ministry of Finance at George Street in Freetown.
He stated that this will reduce the burden on people more especially those who are out of the country that want to apply which they can do with ease. “Citizens will be able to apply for passport anywhere they are in the world without coming to our offices and get back the passport delivered at their doorsteps through DHL or any other means,” he said. He added: “This will help improve the issuance of passport which is the core business of the department from largely paper based which has weakened the department over the years which eventually led to its entry in 2017 contract with a third party for the production of passports to digitalized system,” he revealed.
Mr. Bah boasted that for the past couple of years, the department achieved a lot of successful stories together with other development partners which include the establishment of border posts in Karene and Falaba distrits, the construction of ten border posts in Kono district which was done by Koidu Holdings as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility, construction of border post in Koidukurah by the International Organisation for Migration which is now in full use by the department, the reinstallation of migration, information data analysis (MIDA) in Jendema and Gbalamuya for the effective and efficient data capture and facilitation of travellers among others.
He said despite all the successes, their institution is challenged with lot of issues ranging from low budgetary and untimely release of allocation, lack of mobility which is operational vehicles and motorbikes, inadequate office space especially at the border crossing points, understaff with a total of 218 nationwide to name but a few which is currently slowing down the proactiveness of the institution more especially at the border areas.