The British High Commission in Ghana has since January this year stopped taking payment for UK visas in cash.

The British High Commission (BHC) runs an online visa application system, but applicants were given the option to either pay with credit card online, or in cash at the submission point.

But since January last year, they have cancelled the cash payment option and insisted that applicants paid for visas with internationally recognized Visa Card, Mastercard or Skrill Credit Card.

When Adom News called the visa application centre, VFS, they confirmed that no more cash payments are allowed and no local ATM cards are allowed either.

“So if you do not have an internationally recognized Visa card, Mastercard or Skrill Credit Card then you need to get someone to do it for you or you cannot apply for a visa,” the VFS officer said.

Meanwhile the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that the British High Commission had sent a circular to the ministry and other departments on the matter but the ministry had not made any intervention, until the Chairman of the Consumer Protection Agency (CPA), Kofi Capito raised the alarm.

An official at the Ministry told Adom News “the minister has invited the British High Commissioner to come and explain the reason for the new payment system.”

CPA Chairman Kofi Capito said “this is totally unacceptable because it means we cannot pay for UK Visas with Ghana cedis. If your credit card must be internationally recognized then it means they want an opportunity to cash the money in foreign currency and that is why they have excluded the locally-based ATM cards,” he argued.

Capito said government is showing weakness in allowing this to go on for weeks, because the circular was given to the ministry long before the BHC started implementing it and the Ministry has not bothered to tell Ghanaians or even intervene.

“How can you come into our country and tell us we can’t pay for visas with our local currency, unless we have internationally recognized credit cards – they can’t do this in other countries but because our leaders are weak that is why they throw such things in our faces,” he said.

“I have personally called the minister’s attention – he promised to call me to discuss a way forward but it has been weeks and he has not bothered to do anything about it,” he said.

Kofi Capito said if government does not stop this unacceptable act, Ghanaians will take to the streets and demonstrate against the British High Commission.

When Adom News called the Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Foreign Affairs, he said Parliament is completely oblivious of the issue.

“We are not aware,” the Chairman said. “But we will wait for the Ministry to inform us officially before we can comment.”

Meanwhile, some Ghanaians both here and abroad are angry that government had allowed the BHC to frown on the Ghana cedi “in our own country.”

They want immediate government intervention.

Sometime last year, the British government attempted to place a 3,000 pounds sterling (GHC13,000) bond on first time travelers to the UK from selected countries including Ghana.

They had wanted to compel the first timers to post a bond of GHC13,000 and get a refund only on their return to Ghana, but that was met with vehement protest by citizens of the targeted countries.

Pundits suspect this new payment system is yet another move to make it difficult for people from the developing world to visit the UK, since not many citizens in those countries use even locally recognized ATM cards, much more internationally recognized ones.

The British High Commission had progressively made visa application a herculean and an unfriendly task for citizens of developing countries.

UK Visa applicants have sometimes had to answer over one hundred questions, including specific details of previous travel records, stating date of entry and exit to every country one has travelled to, specific amount in one’s pocket for the travel and many others.

The complexity of the application has made it a business for some internet cafe operators, who fill forms for applicants and charge between GHC30 or GHC50.