The National Identification Authority (NIA) is launching the second phase of its registration campaign, which will enable all eligible Ghanaians to obtain their Ghana Card, which will soon become the sole recognised form of national identification.
Ghanaians residing abroad, as well as children aged 0 to 15, would be considered for this next round of Ghana card registration.
Professor Kenneth Agyeman Attafuah, Executive Secretary of the NIA, stated this during a brief ceremony marking Identity Day For Africa (ID4Africa), which took place on September 16.
That initiative, he said, was part of a strategy to “keep Ghana on the enviable path of attaining legal identity for all by 2030, in line with Target 16.9 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which advocates the provision of legal identity for all, including birth registration.”
World ID Day
ID4Africa, founded in 2014, is a non-governmental organization (NGO) and Pan-African movement that assists African states in creating the strategic ability needed to construct “strong and responsible identity ecosystems in the service of development and humanitarian action.”
Its aim is to promote the provision of legal identity in Africa for every human being everywhere.
NIA’s mandate
Since 2015, Ghana has been a member of ID4Africa.
Prof. Attafuah stated that the purposes and values of ID4Africa were in line with its mandate to produce, maintain, provide, and encourage the use of national identity cards to advance the country’s economic, political, and social activities.
In pursuit of that purpose, he stated that the NIA was resolved to guarantee that all eligible individuals who required national identity cards that were recognized internationally were registered and issued with their cards.
As a result, he said, the authority has projected its major operations for 2022 to 2025, including datelines for phase two of the Ghana card registration effort, which will begin in November this year with registration of Ghanaians in the Diaspora.
He stated that the children’s exercise for Ghana card registration would take off by the end of the year.
He stated that the NIA has already increased its offices and activities, as well as pushed out additional interventions as needed.
He mentioned mass registration operations, the installation of 16 regional offices and 276 operating district offices, as well as premium centers, among other actions.
Prof. Attafuah stated that the NIA was relying on embassies and high commissions throughout the world to ensure a successful exercise since they would have a more credible database.
“The authority is facilitating a collaboration with Ghana’s embassies and high commissions around the world to register all Ghanaians resident outside the country,” he confirmed.
“Registration and issuance of smart cards to Ghanaians between the ages of six and 15 will start from December 2022 or early January 2023 and the NIA intends to register approximately 1.5 million children in this age bracket,” he added.
The NIA Executive Secretary also stated that the registration of refugees in Ghana, as well as Ghanaians in detention facilities like as prisons, cells, mental hospitals, and asylums, will be one of the authority’s primary duties from 2022 to 2025.
He, however, did not give datelines for those, saying “when all modalities on these two phases of registration are finalised, the NIA will put out the commencement dates”.
Cards issued so far
Prof. Attafuah said that since the exercise began in November 2017, 17,109,627 persons had been enrolled.
He stated that as of September 15, 2015, 15,826,148 Ghana cards have been issued.
He also stated that 161,007 cards have been granted to non-citizens in the country.
He stated that 1,283,479 cards remained uncollected for a variety of reasons, including some requiring upgrades, others being unable to identify their collection spots, and still others failing to appear to collect them because they “feel they have no need for them now.”
He stated that the authority had completed data harmonization with the essential agencies that need the data for verification and transactions, and that the process had been seamless.
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“The NIA has completed data harmonisation and transfer of data sets to the key institutions — the Bank of Ghana, 26 universal banks, the Ghana Revenue Authority, the National Health Insurance Authority and mobile network operators — following the execution of MoUs with them.
“It must, therefore, be appreciated that Ghanaians who have registered but have not yet been issued their Ghana cards can still be verified by the banks and the telecommunication companies if the verification devices specified by the NIA are available at these facilities,” he said.
“Regrettably, the NIA was compelled to close down those additional registration points following the announcement in March 2022 of the extension of SIM card re-registration to the second deadline.
“The announcement in March 2022 of the extension the re-registration to the second deadline of 31st July, 2022 resulted in the dramatic non-patronage of those points.
“With the approach of the new deadline of September 30, 2022, the demand for the card has returned and skyrocketed, triggering the need for extra-budgetary resources to accommodate the avalanche of demand,” he indicated.
Prof. Attafuah said that the NIA would guarantee that all those who had registered could have their cards, as the cards had already been made at a cost and had to be distributed.
SOURCE: GRAPHICONLINE
