Moses Kwesi Baiden
Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Margins ID Group, Moses Kwesi Baiden, has asserted that the Ghana Card, embedded in which is the electronic passport (e-passport) stands as the most secure identification document globally.
It can be verified at 4,400 international airports thanks to its advanced features and technologies, he said.
According to him, it is considered a highly secured form of identification with a unique electronic chip that contains a collection of read-only files with sophisticated cryptographic mechanisms that protect the security of the document and the privacy of the passport holder.
He was speaking during a visit to his outfit by officials of the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation and some of its agencies.
The electronic chip on the Ghana Card contains biographic and biometric data that can be compared to both the traveler and the travel document (paper passport) being presented and also has multiple layers of security in the e-passport that prevent duplication.
Kwesi Baiden stated that the Ghana Card meets the highest international standards, as certified by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), and additionally contains three secure identity profiles: the electronic passport (e-passport), an electronic ID (e-ID) profile, and a Match on Card (MOC) profile.
He added that these feat were achieved following the government’s initiative to merge the Ghana Card with the ECOWAS Card, also known as the West African Identity Card to create a single, unified identification document for Ghanaian citizens and enable citizens to travel freely within the ECOWAS region using a single card.
According to data from the Intelligence Card Production System (ICPS), as of July 29, 2024, 18,000,003,162 Ghanaians were registered for the Ghana Card, 17,878,144 cards were printed and 195,076 foreign nationals were registered.
Mr. Baiden mentioned that the progress made in enrolling the majority on the Ghana Card project can significantly contribute to building a robust digital economy as it provides a secure, unique, and verifiable digital identity for citizens, enabling access to financial services, such as mobile money, banking, and digital payments, online government services, informing policy decisions and driving economic growth.
“I am happy that despite different ideas and protests about voting, the parties have eventually agreed that in the next elections, they are going to use the Ghana Card for voting because now we have gone past 98 percent coverage of the adult population,” he added.
BY Prince Fiifi Yorke