Difficulties in registration for Ghana’s digital ID worries lawmakers

The challenges faced by Ghanaians as they struggle to apply for the biometric national digital ID card dubbed the Ghana Card have been a major concern for many citizens, and now members of Parliament.

According to local reports, members of the Communications Committee of Parliament were due to meet Wednesday with the director general of the National Identification Authority (NIA) Ken Attafuah.

At the time of this report, there were no updates about the announced meeting, but Modern Ghana reports that the encounter was for the NIA boss to brief the MPs on the difficulties and steps that are being taken to ensure that many Ghanaians apply for and obtain the digital ID cards with ease.

A ranking member of the committee A.B.A Fuseini quoted by Modern Ghana expressed concerns about what he saw after visiting a number of biometric registration centers. Among the issues he talked about was that of congestion at the registration centers.

The NIA has 276 district and 16 regional offices, but it recently created five new registration centers, four of which are set up in football (soccer) stadiums, according a statement from the authority.

The problems faced by Ghanaians in the procurement of the Ghana Card, per the report, appear even more serious as the digital ID document is the main requirement for the ongoing biometric SIM re-registration. The SIM registration exercise which is scheduled to end on March 31 is also riddled with many challenges.

Possession of the Ghana Card has also become imperative as the Ghanaian government has said it plans to align the taxpayer number with the Ghana Card PIN from March 31, and that it will become the only ID document required for all financial transactions with institutions under the authority of the Bank of Ghana from July 1.

Meanwhile, the NIA said recently that it was in keeping of at least two million Ghana Cards are yet to be withdrawn by their owners, notes My Joy Online.

Article Topics

Africa  |  biometrics  |  digital ID  |  Ghana  |  Ghana Card  |  identity document  |  identity management  |  national ID  |  National Identification Authority (NIA)