Luanda – The Angolan government plans to start issuing passports with enhanced security measures, including biometric data, said the director of the Foreigners Migration Service (SME).
Gil Famoso was speaking to the press at the end of the National Defense Council meeting, led by Angolan President João Lourenço, who analyzed the country’s political and military situation.
The director of the SME said that the proposed amendment of the passport law will be presented “very soon” to move from the current document to the biometric, with greater security measures.
“The change will contain three levels of visual security, verifiable through electronic and security equipment and through specific conformation techniques and forensic techniques,” he explained.
Gil Famoso assured that the issuance of new passports will not imply changes in the prices of the new rate, set this year at 30,500 kwanzas (86 euros).
“There is no prospect of raising the price of the passport with the implementation of the biometric passport, because what will be in question for the determination of the rate are the costs of production and everything that is around its production process,” he said.
Regarding the controversy raised about the increase in prices, from 3,000 kwanzas (8,40 euros) to 30,500 kwanzas, the head of the Angolan migratory service acknowledged that the increase was “very marked” and admitted that there was “no previous satisfactory information” .
“But we also recognize that the previous value of the fee did not even cover the cost of producing the ballot. We believe that the current rate fits the production costs of the passport, the customization costs and all the services so that it reaches the citizen “he said.
By January, the SME had pending 71,413 applications for ordinary passports.
From January to the present, he said, 36,931 passports were issued.
Since the entry into force of the new tax, at the beginning of February, 3,984 procedures were issued for issuing a passport.
