A member of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Patrick Boamah, has clarified that the decision to issue a Ghanaian passport to American streaming sensation Darren Watkins Jr., popularly known as IShowSpeed, does not automatically complete the process.
According to him, the YouTuber must still go through the required legal procedures at the Ministry of the Interior before any passport can lawfully be granted.
Speaking in an interview with Citi News monitored by Hotfmghana on Wednesday, January 28, Boamah explained that while certain administrative steps may be fast-tracked, the legal processes provided under the amended Fees Act, 2025, cannot be bypassed.
“So if he is not a Ghanaian and wants to obtain a passport, or the Minister has announced that he will be issued with one, then he must go through the processes at the Ministry of the Interior to either be naturalised as a Ghanaian or granted dual nationality, which is allowed, before he can be issued with an ordinary passport,” he said.
Boamah further noted that the Minister of Foreign Affairs did not indicate that a diplomatic passport would be issued to the streamer.
“The Minister also did not say he was issuing a diplomatic passport. Speed does not fall within the ambit of Section 7, which deals with special passports for public officers and citizens of Ghana,” he explained.
He added that although some procedures may be waived to speed up the process, the law must still be followed.
“They may waive certain steps for him, yes, towards the acquisition of the passport, but he has to go through the law,” Boamah stressed.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, January 27, announced its approval for the issuance of a Ghanaian passport to IShowSpeed.
The decision followed the streamer’s widely publicised “Speed Does Africa” tour, which ended with a major homecoming event in Ghana on Monday, January 26.
