Prof. Ken Attafuah
THE NATIONAL Identification Authority (NIA) has announced that it has registered 17,163,081 Ghanaians onto the national identity register as of September 15, 2022.
The total number of cards printed stand at 16,627,325, from which 15,869,26 have been issued, while the total number of foreigners enrolled is 161,076.
Prof. Ken Attafuah, Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority, disclosed this at a presser in Accra to mark the World Identification Day.
According to him, opportunities were provided for all Ghanaians since 2017 who desired to register.
He said, “In line with the mandate of the NIA since 2017, we have committed ourselves to register all Ghanaians who desire to do so in Ghana, and very soon we will provide opportunities for Ghanaians abroad to register.”
He stated that after the mass registration exercise by the Authority, it established 16 permanent regional offices and 276 operational offices across the country simultaneously in November 2021.
He also mentioned that the Authority exceeded its target of 80 per cent of registering Ghanaians 18 years and above.
Prof. Attafuah described the registration exercise so far as significant compared to July 2008 and February 2017, where the Authority registered 4,554,528 while it printed 2,719,425 and issued 900,000.
A verification process, according to the NIA, was however, introduced from January 4, 2021 to help institutions across the country to be able to verify as many Ghanaians as possible.
He added that the NIA was issuing printed cards in all the 275 constituencies and the 276 districts offices across the country.
Card issuance started from November 8, 2021.
BY Ebenezer K. Amponsah