HARARE – Passport fees went up sharply on Tuesday as the Registrar General battles a massive backlog dating back more than a year.

Zimbabweans will now fork out ZW$150 for an ordinary passport, up from ZW$53.

An emergency passport now costs ZW$600, up from ZW$263.

Home Affairs Minister Kazembe Kazembe, speaking during a post-Cabinet briefing with reporters, said the government was subsidising the cost of a passport – even as the Registrar General says they are short on foreign currency to import the materials needed in passport production.

“Clearing our passport backlog that currently stands at ‪400,000 is not going to happen soon. However, as government we are subsidising the issuance of passports because it is a basic right for citizens to have the identification documents,” Kazembe said.

“Because we are subsidising the production of passports. Cabinet has also approved that citizens can make their applications using foreign currency. We are just waiting for the Finance Minister to come up with a Statutory Instrument,” he added.

Kazembe said they expected to clear the passport backlog by June. Currently, he said the Registrar General was able to produce two thousands passports daily, which the government hopes to ramp up to 8,000.

He said staff may have to work round the clock to meet their target.