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Ms Jeanette Ndhlovu, South African High Commissioner to Ghana, on Tuesday announced changes in the Visa application procedure of the Commission to ensure efficiency and better services to clients. Thus with effect from July 2, 2013, all Visa applications to the Commission are expected to be submitted to the VFS Global office at East cantonments, next to the Goethe Institute. She explained that the Commission has contracted the VFS Global, a global outsourcing and technology services specialist, which partners diplomatic missions worldwide to manage all their administrative and non-judgmental tasks relating to the entire life-cycle of a visa application process. Ms Ndhlovu said the new arrangement enables the diplomatic missions to focus entirely on the key tasks of assessment and interviews. She told a press conference in Accra that the decision was taken based on the increasing number of daily Visa applications received by the Commission. She said by sharing the responsibility with VFS Global, which has a reputable track record of handling such diplomatic services worldwide since 2001, quality and satisfactory services are assured. Besides, it would help to reduce the number of hours clients spends in submitting and picking up their Visa application responses. According to her Ghana and South Africa are becoming development partners and hoped the new Visa acquisition procedure would further strengthen the bilateral relationship between the two countries and help boost tourism, which is popular in both countries. Madam Jacky Kruger, First Secretary Immigration and Civic Services, South African High Commission said there would be no changes in the processing of visa applications except that applicants would now be required to pay the visa application fee of GHC 95.50 in addition to a mandatory VFS Service fee of GHC 130.00 before submitting at the application centre. �Payments can be made at the VFS Centre or any Stanbic bank branch�, she said. She said submission time would start from 0800 hours to 1400 hours whilst collection could be done from 1500 hours to 1630 hours. Mr Dormsamy Raghavan, Country Manager for VFS Global, said the company has been in partnership with South Africa for some time now and is providing similar services in other African countries and assured the Ghanaian client of excellent services. Ms GloriaYirenkyi, General Manager of South African Airways, further announced that with effect from August 7, 2013, the Airline would increase its flight from the current six to seven times a week with improved services in response to the increasing patronage by customers from Ghana. She said a technical support base would be established at the Kotoka International Airport to ensure the regular maintenance of the aircrafts. The management team at the base, she said, would largely comprise of Ghanaians who would be trained by South African experts.