Persons who hold citizen identification cards of both Ghana and another country are not breaching the laws of the country.
This was explained by the spokesperson of the National Identification Authority (NIA), ACI Palm Deti, following the posting on social media of a man said to hold both the Ghana Card and that of another country.
He said “Ghana’s law on citizenship as indicated in the 1992
Constitution at Chapter 3 (as amended) and Citizenship Act, 2000 (Act 591)
allows a Ghanaian to hold another nationality in addition to his Ghanaian
citizenship. In effect, Dual Nationality or Citizenship is lawful in Ghana.”
“Therefore, an individual who is in possession of identity documents of Ghana
and another country is not necessarily committing a crime. One can only
establish that the possession of the two documents is unlawful when it is properly
investigated and proven,” he added.
The person possessing the two documents could be a dual national
since all one needs to prove his/her nationality is to provide evidence that
ONE parent or grandparent is a Ghanaian.
“On the issue of indicating ones place of birth on the face of the ID card, I
am not sure whether it is crucial to anything,” he said, pointing out that “the
place of birth of an individual in some circumstances plays a role in
determining citizenship; however, it is my view that in Ghana’s case, not
indicating the place of birth on the said ID cards (Voter ID or National ID) is
not fatal, especially when that information could easily be crosschecked
from the personal information provided by the applicant.”