Chinese nationals have taken over Non-citizen National Identity card, commonly called Ghanacard, DGN Online can report.
Out of the 161,007 foreign nationals from 202 countries in Ghana that have been issued with the Non-Citizen card, Chinese top the list with 34,712 cards.
Per the statistics available to DGN Online, Chinese nationals constitute 22 percent of foreigners issued with non-citizens Ghanacard.
Professor Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah, Executive Secretary, National Identification Authority (NIA) who put out this data at a press conference in Accra indicated that Nigerians constituted the second-largest citizens with non-citizen Ghanacard with a total of 25,873 cards.
A total of 20,110 Indians have obtained non-citizens Ghanacard, occupying the third position, he added.
According to him, Germans follow with 4,329 bearers of the card then Lebanese-4,324, British-4,133, South Africans-3,194; 2,222, Ivorians -2,150 and Gabonese-1,958 cards.
Giving data on the number of people who have registered with the Authority, Prof Attafuah mentioned that some 17.1 million (17,163,081) people had been enrolled onto the NIA system as of September 15, 2022.
However, he said a total of 16.6 million (16,627,326) cards printed out of the number of people enrolled, and 15.8 million (15,869,026) cards issued out of the number of cards printed so far.
The NIA boss indicated that his outfit had introduced a robust system to verify all cards of Ghanaians for the purpose of transacting businesses with banks and to verify non-citizens who would use the card to apply for or renew their residence permit, open or run a bank account in the country.
Prof Attafuah noted that Ghana is seriously determined to ensure that the Ghana card became “the single source of proof,” noting that the Authority, since January 2021, introduced a verification system, which made banks authenticate individuals who used the card for various transactions.
“With this verification system, if you go to the bank with or without your Ghana card, with your fingerprint, the bank is able to verify your identity as part of KYC (Know Your Customer) and give you a service,” the Executive Secretary said
Prof Attafuah stated that NIA would from November 2022 commence the registration of Ghanaians abroad and embark on an exercise to register children in the country between the ages of four to 15 in December 2022.
Meanwhile, the NIA is set to start registration for refugees next week.
By Vincent Kubi