Professor Kenneth Attafuah
The National Identification Authority (NIA) has launched an investigation into the alleged multiple registration attempts of over 100,000 Ghanaians for the Ghana Card.
According to the NIA, the affected individuals attempted to register for the national identification card more than once, violating the registration guidelines.
The Executive Secretary of NIA, Professor Kenneth Attafuah, who disclosed this when he appeared before the Government Assurances Committee of Parliament, said the affected individuals’ cards had been flagged and placed in a delinquency status, pending the outcome of the investigation.
“We have a total of 110,936, as the number of Ghanaians who have attempted multiple registrations whose cards have gone into delinquency and are being investigated,” he stressed.
Prof. Attafuah indicated that the Authority had successfully enrolled approximately 18.2 million Ghanaians into the national register, but pointed out that a total of 559,457 Ghana Cards were yet to be issued to citizens as of August 20, 2024.
“In the case of total enrollments, 18,145, 839 Ghanaians registered onto the national identity register, and the total number of cards printed is indicated at 17.882 million, and the total issued, 17,323,416,” he explained.
“The total number of cards not issued to Ghanaians as at the date of compilation of this report, which was the 20th of August 2024 is 559,457, and cards that have been cleared and ready to be printed stands at 151,896,” he added.
The NIA’s Executive Secretary said that the Authority had expanded its registration services to Ghanaians living abroad, collaborating with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration to set up a pilot overseas registration scheme in Ottawa, Canada.
“We chose Canada for a strategic reason. We wanted a place where we would test the robustness, the acuteness of our technical system that we’ve designed in partnership with our technical partners,” he explained.
According to him, NIA envisioned a registration process where most applicants would possess two essential documents: a birth certificate or a passport, thereby streamlining the verification process and ensuring a smoother experience for the majority of registrants.
He explained that the banking process, which forms part of the registration process, will require the use of the internet.
Prof. Attafuah added, “The whole registration of Ghanaians overseas is based on the use of the internet. People going online. Applying online, making the payment online, and then presenting themselves physically.”
By Ernest Kofi Adu