NIA Completes Printing Of Outstanding Ghana Cards

The National Identification Authority (NIA) has announced it has cleared up the backlog of Ghana cards in its database.

Printing of the 541,529 cards which had been accumulated since July 2022 was completed on Monday, March 27 after it began on March 18.

“The backlog arose from shortage of blank cards” due to a GH¢100 million debt the NIA owed its creditors. 

In Parliament on February 28, the Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori Atta said the debt had been cleared. 

“I think that the main question was about the GH¢100 million to be transferred to CalBank IMS and as has been confirmed by the [Executive] Director for the NIA, we have indeed transferred the GH¢80 million and today with swift instructions the GH¢20 million has also been executed. That is the assurance we want to give that we will continue to work with the programme we have agreed with CalBank”, he told the House.

It will be recalled that in a statement dated March 21, the NIA announced it had begun printing.

A recent statement from the Authority dated March 29 said, “with focus, rigour and coherence in project management and implementation”, it was able to print all the cards in 10 days. 

“The staff worked fervently for ten continuous days in two shifts — day and night.”

The printed cards will be issued to applicants from April 5 after they are distributed to the Authority’s regional and district offices across the country. 

“All Ghanaians who have registered for their Ghana Cards since July 2022 but are yet to receive them, are assured that effective Wednesday, 5th April 2023, they can visit the District or Regional Offices where they registered for their printed cards to be issued to them.”

Ghana Card For Voter Registration

The Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana is pushing to make the Ghana card the sole identity card for enrolment onto the voter’s register, a proposal that has been met with stiff opposition from the Minority in Parliament.

The Minority argues that the inability of the NIA to print cards for applicants will disenfranchise many Ghanaians if the Constitutional Instrument (C.I) of the EC is adopted and passed by Parliament.

But during an appearance before the House on February 28, Executive Director of the NIA, Professor Kenneth Attafuah said the delay in printing cards was due to financial constraints and not related to the Authority’s capability.

He said the NIA has the capacity to issue the required number of cards to enable the EC to do its work. 

“We have the capacity, we have over a thousand functional printers, and we have people who are trained, who are professionals who are sitting at home doing nothing and are anxious to work. We will call those people back to work. With 500 printers, we can print 50,000 cards a day,” he told Parliament according to Citi news.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini