Cameroonians wishing to establish a passport will have to pay 110.000 (One hundred and ten thousand ) FCFA from the 1st of July 2021.
This has been announced by Martin Mbarga Nguele, delegation general for national security.
In a press conference Tuesday, June 8, 2021 in Yaounde, the police boss in Cameroon explained that the increase in the cost from 75000FCFA to 110.000FCFA is to permit government better secure the production and equally modernize the passport issuance process.
To the delegate general of national security, the process of production will be made faster than in the past.
In 2020, he announced that from March 2021, the production process of a passport will take forty eight hours (Two days). As of today, June 8th, 2021, Cameroonians still go for months before receiving their passports.
To Ngwang Anthony, a Douala based business man, “…all what I want is that passports should be out at most one week after paying for it. The cost is not really a problem”.
To others the continuous increase in the cost of producing a passport does not make sense. To this category of people, government has to equally increase the number of years a passport can be useful before it expires.
With a period of twenty years, the government of Cameroon has increased the cost of a passport three times. From thirty thousand Francs, government increased to 50.000 fcfa.In 2016, it was increased to 75000fcfa and in 2021, government has added 35000fcfa to the cost thereby amounting to 110.000f cfa.
Observers say government is in the process of raising money to finance its projects by increasing the cost of passport to the detriment of locals.
Cameroon is one of the rare countries in the world with high cost of passport. In Democratic Republic of Congo, the cost of a passport is 55,000fcfa, Benin 30.000fcfa, Senegal 20.000fcfa, France 50.000fcfa and Mali 50000fcfa.
Mimi Mefo Info.
