The National Identification Authority (NIA), after its mass nationwide registration and mop-up exercises, has been able to register 15,549,242 adult Ghanaians comprising 8,268,429 females and 7,280,813 males for the Ghana Card.
Out of the total, 13,251,803 were between the ages of 18 years and 60 years while those above 60 years were 1,382,134 but interestingly single men who registered outnumbered single women with the number of single men being 3,097,014 and that of single women being 2,717,843.
The Executive Secretary of the NIA, Prof. Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah, who made these known at a press conference in Accra, said the authority would continue with the registration process at its designated offices, stressing that institutions and households who want to undertake institutional and household registrations could contact the NIA via its website ( www.nia.gov.gh) and put in application.
The Executive Secretary of the NIA also announced that the Authority intends to open new offices in the regional and district capitals and has, therefore, started the process of securing an executive fiat to build the new offices to help decentralize its operations.
According to Prof. Attafuah, the Authority is seeking clearance from the Public Services Commission to start putting up the offices while financial clearance will also be sought from the Ministry of Finance to recruit officers to man those offices.
He said when the clearance is granted, the NIA would advertise the vacancies internally for persons who were engaged during the mass registration exercise and have gained experience in relation to the job categories.
“The criteria to be used in screening and selecting interested applicants will be objective and will be done with the assistance of the Public Services Commission,” he said, stressing that out of the over 70,000 graduates engaged, 3,200 would get the opportunity to be employed.
He said the NIA had already signed memoranda of understanding with user agencies like Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Bank of Ghana (BoG), Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Electoral Commission (EC), Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) and Driver, Vehicle and Licensing Authority (DVLA).
According to him, discussions with these user agencies are at various stages regarding data harmonization and integration to allow them to access any data they want.
He indicated that the Ghana Card would bring a lot of benefits to the Ghanaian economy and Ghanaians in general.
He said apart from helping the government to increase its revenue generation and promote socio-economic development, it would help to easily track down criminals in the society.
He stressed, “It is important for every Ghanaian to have the Ghana Card,” adding that registration of Ghanaians in the diaspora will start early next year while those under 15 years will begin when the new regional and district offices are fully set up.
He pointed out that any Ghanaian who will lose his or her Ghana Card would have to immediately report to the nearest police station about the loss of the card and collect police extract indicating that the card had got lost before applying for replacement from NIA.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr