The ongoing SIM deactivation would not affect anyone who have not yet received their Ghana Cards, according to the National Communications Authority (NCA).
According to a statement made on Wednesday by the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunication, some services would be cut off for users who did not finish the biometric registration step.
Voice, data (mobile, phones, mifis, and other data-providing devices), SMS (incoming and outgoing), USSD, mobile money services, and emergency services are among the services that will be blocked.
However, Nana Defie Badu, the NCA’s Director for Consumer & Corporate Affairs, stated that those who have not yet received their Ghana Cards will be excused.
“For those who did not have their Ghana cards and have not been able to register, those people will be exempt from any punitive measures pending the NIA giving them their Ghana card,” she disclosed on JoyNews on Thursday.
She continued by saying that the reason the NCA had been established was to assist in addressing the general public’s worries regarding their incapacity to register SIM cards.
“We acknowledge that there are some people who actually did the stage where they actually linked the sim to the Ghana card but unfortunately, after doing that their Ghana card were either lost, damaged or through no fault of theirs, they could not proceed to do stage two.
“So, for these people, we have actually asked that they should engage the NCA by calling our toll-free number. After we do an investigation and verify the issue, these people will also be put on the exclusion list pending them getting their Ghana cards reissued to them,” she told the host.
Meanwhile, AirtelTigo has announced that all SIM cards that are not fully registered on its network as of November 30 2022, will be blocked from accessing all services.
Customers who have successfully linked their SIM cards to their Ghana Cards but have not undergone biometric capture will effectively have all partially registered SIM cards blocked from making and receiving calls, accessing the internet and mobile money services, sending and receiving SMS, and other services.
In order to implement the idea of using the Ghana Card as the only form of identification for the upcoming limited voter’s registration exercise, the Electoral Commission (EC) must first ensure that a consensus agreement between all parties is reached, according to conflict resolution and peacebuilding expert Emmanuel Bombande.
He claimed that if significant stakeholders, including opposition parties, cannot come to an agreement on the use of the Ghana Card as proof of citizenship before it is implemented, it could lead to unrest during the general elections in 2024.
He explained that issues of citizenship had played a major factor in many conflicts in Africa and that Ghana needed to tread cautiously in order not to disturb the relative peace of the country.
It was on the theme: “Trending conflicts in Ghana: Fertile grounds for violent extremism; A call for action” brought together various key stakeholders in the country to deliberate on the best possible ways to guard the country against violent extremism and terrorism.
The forum was held under the auspices of the Sahel Peace Initiative (SPI), a peace-building project being rolled out by the Catholic Church with funding from the Catholic Relief Services (CRS).
Ghana Card
The EC in a Constitutional Instrument (C.I) yet to be laid before Parliament has proposed the use of Ghana Card as the sole identification document for the upcoming limited registration exercise.
The decision by the EC has brought to the fore concerns by some stakeholders in the electoral process that making the Ghana Card the only form of identification for the registration exercise would lead to the disenfranchisement of many eligible voters.
Notable among the stakeholders that have raised concerns about the use of the Ghana Card is the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Mr Bombande noted that consensus building was key to ensuring transparency in the country’s electoral system, hence the need for the EC to engage with all stakeholders in the electoral process for consensus to be reached on the matter before it was rolled out.
IPAC
The conflict resolution expert also cautioned that the gradual eroding role of the Inter Party Advisory Committees (IPAC) in mediating electoral disputes could spell doom for Ghana’s democracy if not checked.
He said IPAC had over the years played a significant role in sustaining the country’s democracy by mediating electoral disputes.
He said, however, that in recent times, the role of IPAC had been relegated to the background; a situation he said should be of concern to all stakeholders who have interest in Ghana’s democracy.
Mr Bombande expressed concern that the relationship of the EC and some political parties, particularly the main opposition party, NDC, had not been the best in recent times.
For him, IPAC presented opportunity for both the EC and the political parties to iron out issues that could hinder fair and transparent elections.
He said, “The role of mediation of election has reduced and so there is so much tension.”
Background
IPAC was formed in March 1994 to bring together representatives of the political parties on a monthly basis with members of the EC to discuss and try to build a consensus on electoral issues.
In the next 24 hours, approximately six million network subscribers who have only linked their Ghana card and SIM card would be debarred from making or receiving calls, as well as data and SMS services.
These individuals have failed to complete the biometric stage before the fourth deadline extension of the SIM card re-registration exercise elapses.
On its part, telecommunication giant, MTN, has noted that it will deactivate 5,701,149 subscribers on December 01, 2022.
The deactivation of SIM cards forms part of measures introduced by the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation to ensure all SIM cards are re-registered in the country.
In a statement issued on Friday, November 11, Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, mentioned that SIM card registration will help minimise fraudulent activities.
The SIM re-registration exercise which commenced in October 2021 was expected to end on July 31, 2022.
However, it was extended to September 30 to allow Ghanaians link their SIM cards to their Ghana Cards.
The deadline was again extended for the third time [October 31] due to the low number of re-registered SIM cards.
With several complaints about long queues at the premises of network providers, a self-serving registration app was launched to assist individuals to register in the comfort of their homes at a cost of GH5.
Yet, the numbers of registered SIM cards were not encouraging. As such, the NCA in September blocked outgoing calls for a sequential batch of numbers for 2 days.
The Ministry in a press conference noted that defaulters of the SIM card registration exercise will be blocked on Sunday, October 31, 2021.
However, after the October 31 deadline, unregistered SIM card holders continue to make and receive calls, as well as enjoy data and SMS services.
Currently, a total of 30,011,082 SIM cards have been linked to Ghana Cards, thereby completing the first phase of the registration process.
As of November 9, 20,892,970 subscribers had completed both the linkage and capture of their biometric data.
Meanwhile, the National Communications Authority (NCA) has disclosed that individuals whose SIM cards will be blocked will be given a six-month grace period to reclaim their SIM cards after registering.
Unregistered SIM cards after the six-month grace period will be churned out.
Nevertheless, it is unknown what will happen to individuals who have not begun the registration exercise due to the unavailability of a Ghana card since the
communications ministry did not factor them in their recent communique.
The applicants used the High Court’s supervisory jurisdiction to ask the court to overturn the Minister of Communications’ choice to make the Ghana Card the only form of registration.
Additionally, the applicants asked the court to overturn a Ministry order requiring everyone to register within a particular time frame or face having their SIM cards disabled.
However, in a judgment, the court, presided over by Justice Charles Ekow Baiden, held that the applicants failed to prove that the National Communications Authority acted arbitrarily or in excess of its powers.
As part of the ruling, the court held that:
1. The NCA has the full legal mandate to conduct the SIM registration exercise
2. That the NCA has not exceeded its powers or breached the natural justice principle as there have been sufficient extensions of the deadlines for the registration exercise.
3. The National Identity Register, 2021. Regulation 7 of L.I.2111 gives the NCA power to limit the National Identity document for the purpose of SIM registration to the Ghana card only.
4. Dictates of national security and the need to prevent crime make it imperative that the NCA undertakes the SIM registration exercise
The National Identification Authority has begun the registration and issuance of Refugee Identity Cards to refugees living in Ghana.
The process is expected to enable refugees in the country to get access to some social services they do not currently enjoy as a result of their unregistered status.
Accessing basic services such as opening a bank account, registering SIM cards etc. is often a daunting task for refugees in the country. They have thus been calling on the government to be considered for the Ghana card ever since the exercise began, so they could live a stress-free life while in the country.
Some of the registered refugees Citi News spoke to, expressed joy and said they now feel fully integrated into the Ghanaian society.
Acting Executive Secretary for the Ghana Refugee Board, Padi Tetteh commended the registration process saying it is a step in the right direction and in accordance with international conventions.
“Due to the fact that we are signatories to the UN Refugee Convention and also the fact that we are governed by the Ghana Refugee Law, we are to ensure that refugees have access to social services, and it is important that they do so in order to allow them to earn a living.”
Padi Tetteh also revealed that 7,000 refugees are expected to be issued the card at the end of the exercise.
He was quick to clarify that the card does not grant nationality to the refugees but, it is a means to enable them to get access to decent social services and also to ensure their safety while living in Ghana.
“It is important to note that the card doesn’t grant them nationality, and they don’t have the right to vote. The only thing is that the card gives them the right to social services in order to live in safety and dignity.”
The 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol outline the rights of refugees, as well as the legal obligations of States to protect them, including the right to social services.
Professor Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah, the Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA), says the Authority is poised to clear all backlogs and register new people if the Ghana card will be used for the 2024 general election.
“There’s ample time, there’s solid technology, expertise, leadership and will… If Parliament gives the Electoral Commission the go-ahead, we are ready,” he said.
Prof Attafuah, who said this in an engagement with the media, said: ” It will be a tragedy if we do not use Ghana card for election 2024. There’s no reasonable basis for that not to happen.”
He said because, the NIA had registered 17.3 million out of the 19 million projection with ” a lot of those eligible to vote captured”.
The Executive Secretary said those who had not been registered and above 18 years and those who would turn 18 years could be registered in six months.
“… Ours is continuous registration and we have offices in every district and NIA has shown capacity to open additional registration points. These measures will be introduced when necessary.”
Prof Attafuah also said the Authority would begin the registration of Ghanaians abroad next year February.
He said the registration, a statutory requirement, would be done by Ghana’s missions and at a fee to the registrants.
Prof Attafuah said Ghanaians in the West African sub-region would pay the equivalent of 30 dollars with those in the rest of Africa paying slightly lower than those Euro-American countries.
Ghanaians in Euro-American countries will pay 50 dollars.
He said the payment was part of the revenue model that underpinned the public private engagement on the Identity Management System and reason the Authority was able to give out the cards free to Ghanaians in Ghana.
The Authority will also start registering Ghanaians age six years and above and Ghanaians in detention from February next year.
The Executive Secretary said so far, the NIA had registered 17,316,762 Ghanaians, printed 16,701,636 cards and issued 16,016,464 cards.
He said the Authority had so enrolled 164,405 foreigners, printed and issued 164,405 cards to them.
The Authority has started the registration of refugees in the country.
Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has disclosed that every child born within the borders of Ghana will be issued a National Identification Card (Ghana Card) number at birth, starting from the first quarter of 2023.
The vice president, who disclosed this in a series of tweets he shared after a meeting on the integration of databases in Ghana on November 3, said that this puts Ghana at par with advanced countries.
“Today, I chaired a meeting the integration of the databases of the Ghana Health Service, National Health Insurance Authority, National Identification Authority, the Ghana Statistical Service. We have been working on this for a year now.
“As a product of the work, I am happy to announce that from the end of the first quarter of next year, children born in Ghana will be issued a National ID card (Ghana Card) number from birth as is done in many advanced nations,” part of the vice president’s tweets read.
The integration between the Ghana Card and the Tax Identification Numbers, SSNIT cards, Passport, DVLA, Bank Accounts and SIM cards started in 2021.
Already, the Ghana Card has been merged with Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT); National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and Tax Identification Number (TIN) of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA); a move which has seen an increase in the database of these institutions.
The National Identification Authority (NIA) has announced that effective October 31, its special service centre at El-wak sports stadium will be closed down.
The Authority opened the registration centre at El-wak months ago to facilitate the registration for the Ghana card and its replacement.
The NIA in a statement said all applicants who have completed the processes for a card update or replacement but are yet to pick their cards should visit the Greater Accra Regional office at Kinbu.
“Applicants requesting update and card replacement services should visit the nearest NIA District or Regional Office,” the Authority said in a statement.
It added that all applicants who have any request regarding the card verification should do so at its Shiashie head office.
Meanwhile, the Authority says it has so far issued 15,826,148 Ghana cards out of the 16,627,325 printed cards from 17,109,627 registrations as of the end of August this year.
Addressing a press conference in Accra recently, the Executive Secretary of the NIA, Professor Kenneth Agyeman Attafuah, said while his outfit admits that there were some challenges with the issuance of the cards, it could not be blamed solely if some people did not have their cards yet.
He said some Ghanaians have failed to take advantage of the various opportunities for them to go for their cards at the decentralised levels.
“We still have some cards issued during the mass registration exercises in 2020. I was in Koforidua about three months ago on a monitoring exercise. I called someone whose card was ready to come for it. That person said it was not time for the collection of cards and that he would come for it when he had need for it.
The Minority in Parliament is demanding the appearance of the National Identification Authority(NIA) and the Electoral Commission before the House to clarify concerns with the current data of Ghanaians under their control.
The Minority says this is a result of plans by the EC to rely on the Ghana Card from the NIA for the 2024 General Elections.
Speaking on the Floor of Parliament, the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, says statistics from the NIA must reconcile with that of the EC before any such a move could be undertaken.
“Let us see the discrepancy and variance in your numbers because we will not accept any attempt by the Electoral Commission to disenfranchise any Ghanaian because they want to rely on an ID card which is not available to Ghanaians.”
The Minority Leader also called on the house to constitute an ad hoc committee to oversee the implementation of recommendations of the Public Accounts Committee on the Auditor General’s Report.
“Parliament must help the public purse in getting this committee constituted,” Mr. Iddrisu said.
He added that there had been meetings with the Majority Leader, and they agreed that “probably we should get a retired jurist or a retired member of Parliament with good standing on account.”
In his response, the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, said there is an existing committee to the effect and the Public Accounts Committee must present a report on their work for consideration by the house.
The Speaker further said he has not received any briefing from the EC on its plans to use the data of the NIA for the elections.
He noted until such is done, the EC “should forget about laying any such instrument in the House.”
After it was revealed in October 2021 that holding a Ghana Card was the sole license for wage payments, public sector employees began to complain.
According to Cephas Narh Dosso, Head of Public Relations at CADG, “We have a payroll that takes care of roughly 500,000 government employees nationwide.
The CAGD has been putting procedures in place as a department throughout the years to guarantee that the integrity of the payroll is always maintained.
The Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD) says it will not withdraw its directive ordering public sector workers to acquire a national identification card by December 1, 2021, or forfeit their salaries.
There have been agitations by a section of government workers and unions since the Department issued the directive on Tuesday, October 12, 2021, with some asking the Controller and Accountant-General to reconsider the directive and withdraw it completely or have the deadline extended.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Thursday, Mr. Cephas Narh Dosso, the Head of Public Relations at CADG, reaffirmed the Department’s directive, saying it was the best way to address challenges in the government’s payroll system.
He explained that Section 8(4) of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921), mandated the CAGD to, among other functions, receive, disburse and provide secured custody for public funds.
He said as a department that deals with about 500,000 government workers, it was necessary that it put in measures to ensure the integrity of the payroll at all times.
“We have a payroll that takes care of about 500,000 government employees nationwide. As a department, over the years, the CAGD has been instituting measures that will ensure that the integrity of the payroll is maintained at all times,” Mr. Dosoo explained.
He rather urged the various public institutions and unions to educate their members to acquire the cards before the deadline.
Me Dosoo said: “We appreciate the concerns by our unions because they are our major stakeholders but, we will say that…we need to urge our colleague workers to avail themselves and go through the registration process. For now, the deadline is not today, and so the best thing to do is to avail ourselves.”
“When we get to the deadline we will review the data, and I am sure the right decisions will be taken by the right authorities,” he added.
The CAGD, in a statement issued on Tuesday, October 12, 2021, warned that government workers without Ghana Cards would not be paid from December 1, 2021.
The move, it said, formed part of the Government’s efforts to deliver a speedy, secured, and verified payroll service to employees and pensioners while reducing the risk of undeserving payments or claims.
The National Identification Authority, early this month, disclosed that more than 15 million citizens had registered for the Ghana Card.
However, out of the number, only 12 million had been issued with their cards. The NIA added that provisions were being made for the three million Ghanaians yet to receive their cards to get them.
The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has blamed charging entities for wrongful deductions with the E-levy implementation.
The Authority said even though some customers have updated their information with charging entities, the entities have failed to do same with the GRA.
“We are aware of these wrongful charges. The good news is that there is an avenue for customers to make complaints when there are wrongful charges.
What we have also noticed is that customers have gone to the charging entities, especially the banks, to update their information, but the charging entities have failed to update same with GRA,” Head of Project Management at GRA, Isaac Kwabena Amoako said in a media interview.
Mr Amoako thus urged persons affected to report to their charging entities for a refund.
“Anyone who has been wrongfully charged has an obligation to report to their charging entities.
They are not supposed to reach out to GRA. Coming to us means that you are reporting the charging entities,” he added.
Meanwhile, he said customers can report to the GRA after they have reported to the charging entities but have not gotten the desired result.
Some Ghanaians have taken to social media to complain about unlawful charges on their transactions, even though they have successfully linked their Ghana Carddetails with their SIM cards.
However, the GRA has absolved itself of any blame.
Barely a week to the September 30th deadline for the re-registration of SIM cards, Ningo-Prampram MP, Sam George has alleged that the National Identification Authority (NIA) offered preferential treatment in issuing Ghana Cards to some nine Ghanaian citizens after they filed a writ against the Authority.
Sam George disclosed this in an interview on Top Story on Thursday.
According to the Deputy Ranking Member on the Communications Committee in Parliament, the NIA decided to call these persons to come for their cards because they filed a writ in court over the matter.
The MP said these Ghanaians registered for the card in 2018 and over two years have been struggling to receive their cards.
But the MP noted that the Authority after the writ had been filed, “begged” these persons to come for their cards and were met with “VIP” treatment.
“Evans, we filed a suit on Monday with nine Ghanaian citizens some who had registered for the Ghana Cardssince 2018 but have not received the Ghana Card…Within 48 hours they were called by the NIA, and begged to come for their cards.
“They got to the NIA office, they were given VIP treatment, there was an NIA officerwaiting to meet them at the entrance, walked them straight into an air-conditioned room, offered them water and then gave them their Ghana Cards. These are people who for two and a half years had been chasing the NIA, had been tossed left and right, some of them came from outside Accra and had to go to El-wak and Shiashie with no success,” he narrated.
Sam George emphasised that despite the preferential treatment meted out to these people, the case will proceed in court.
This, he said is because the said persons were affected by the two days’ blockage of SIM cards by the telecommunications companies.
All nine applicants for Ghana Cards hadsubmitted applications, according to the NIA answer, however, none of the applicants picked up their printed cards from the locations where they were instructed to do so.
Nine Ghanaian persons who filed a lawsuit seeking an interlocutory injunction to stop the Attorney General (AG) and the National Communication Authority (NCA) from enforcing the 30 September 2022 deadline for SIM Card re-registration in Ghana have withdrawn their case.
The application was premised on the argument that they had applied for their Ghana cards at varying dates but were yet to receive the same. To that end, should the Court allow the State and the NCA to go ahead with the re-registration deadline, they risked losing their SIM cards through no fault of theirs.
NCA request letter
Their decision to discontinue the case followed the response of the National Identification Authority (NIA) to a search letter written to the NIA by the lawyer for the NCA, Gary Nimako Marfo, requesting the NIA to furnish the NCA with detailed information on the status of the Ghana Card application of all the nine applicants.
The NIA response to the NCA dated 28 September 2022 and signed by the Executive Director of the NIA, Professor Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah, and copied to the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame,revealed that all the nine applicants had indeed applied for their Ghana Cards, but all had however failed to pick up their cards which had been printed from the locations they had been asked to do so.
Page one of the NIA response to the NCA
NCA deposition
Following the NIA’s response to the letter of the NCA lawyer, an affidavit deposed to by one Kofi Ntim Yeboah-Kordieh, Principal Manager at the Regulatory Administration Division of the NCA, among others, is quoted as saying, “From the response given in Exhibit NCA 2 (NIA’s response), it is clear that the substantive action including the present application for an injunction is frivolous, bereft of merit and same is merely intended to vex the Respondents”.
“That again, it is clear that the Applicants have been indolent and have not taken any positive steps to collect their Ghana Cards from National Identification Authority. That this is a proper case where this Honourable Court ought to dismiss this application with punitive cost,” Mr Yeboah-Kordieh stated in his deposition.
Applicants’ reliefs sought
The applicants; Belynda Naa Odey Hammond, Jennifer Elorm Dzikunu, Charisty Mansah Afua N. Ackotia, Nsor Sabasi, Josephine Annor Prempeh, Vida Delacy Kemevor, Regina Elkplim Dagadu, Irene Ayariga, and Tracy Ashong, today 29 September 2022, told an Accra High Court (General Jurisdiction 10) that they do not intend to proceed any further with the case.
Page two of the NIA response to the NCA
The applicants were seeking seven reliefs in their application filed on 22 September 2022. First, a declaration that the impugned directive of the Respondents requiring the Applicants to re-register their Mobile Phone SIM with the Ghana Card as the only identity document at a time when the National Identification Authority has not been able to issue Ghana Cards to Applicants is in breach of articles 21, 23 and 296 of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, the National Communications Authority Act 2008 (Act 769), the Subscriber Identity Module Registration Regulation, 2011 (L.I 2006), and the National Identity Register Regulation, 2012 (L.I 2111) and to that extent, null and void.
Second, a declaration that the impugned directives of the Respondents imposing punitive measures/sanctions commencing from the 5th day of September 2022 on the use of the Applicants’ Mobile Phone SIM Cards and Network Services breach articles 21, 23, and 296 of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, the National Communications Authority Act 2008 (Act 769), the Subscriber Identity Module Registration Regulation, 2011(L.I 2006), and the National Identity Register Regulation, 2012 (L.I 2111) and to that extent, are null and void.
Third, a declaration that the impugned directives of the Respondents to Applicants’Mobile Telecommunication Companies to block, disconnect, deactivate, churn and/or in any other way or manner limit the use of the Applicants’ Mobile Phone SIM Cards and Network Services by 30th September 2022, at a time when there is no reasonable possibility of Applicants receiving their Ghana Cards from the National Identification Authority on or before 30th September 2022 for the purpose of using same to register their SIM Cards is unfair, unreasonable, contrary to law and to that extent, unenforceable.
Page three of the NIA response to the NCA
Fourth, an order of this Honourable Court in the nature of certiorari directed at Respondents to bring before this Honourable Court for the purpose of being quashed, any order, decision, policy, and/or directive issued to Mobile Telecommunication Companies operating in Ghana to block, disconnect, deactivate, restrict, and/or in any other way or manner limit the use of the Applicants’ Mobile Phone SIM Cards and Network Services unless Applicants register or re-register the said SIM Cards on or before 30th September 2022.
Fifth, an order of this Honourable Court in the nature of certiorari directed at Respondents to bring before this Honourable Court for the purpose of being quashed any order, decision, policy, and/or directive issued to Mobile Telecommunication Companies operating in Ghana to impose punitive measures/sanctions against Applicants’ Mobile Phone SIM Cards and Network Services during the period commencing from the 5th day of September 2022.
Sixth, an order of perpetual injunction restraining the Respondents herein, either acting by themselves, their agents, workmen, contractors and sub-contractors, associates, and any and all such person(S) claiming and/or deriving authority through and/or under any and/or all of the Respondents herein from imposing punitive measures/sanctions including blocking, deactivating, restricting, churning and/or in any other way or manner limiting the Applicants’ use of their Mobile Phone SIM Cards and Network Services until such timethat the National Identification Authority shall make available to Applicants their Ghana Cards, and lastly, any such further or other relief(s) as to this Honourable Court may seem just.
Following the decision to discontinue, the Court did not sit on the matter at all.
More than one million network subscribers will have their unregistered SIM cards deactivated after September 30, 2022, as they are without a Ghana card, the
sole identification document for the ongoing SIM registration exercise.
The Independent Ghana has arrived at this conclusion following careful analysis of statements by relevant stakeholders in the communication sector who are to
ensure the smooth running of the SIM registration exercise.
The institutions involved in this analysis are the National Identification Authority (NIA), the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, and the National Communications Authority (NCA).
The NIA is responsible for the issuance of the Ghana card and, according to the authority, it will not be able to issue all the Ghana cards needed to enable network subscribers to register their SIM cards.
On September 9, 2022, the Director of Corporate Affairs at the NIA, Dr Abudu Abdul Ganiyu, told JoyNews that NIA has issued 15,859,251 Ghana cards and is yet to print 528,360 cards, as well as issue 763,877 cards. In total, 1,292,237 Ghana cards are yet to be received.
A week after his comment, the Executive Secretary of the Authority, Professor Kenneth Agyeman Attafuah, while addressing the press on the provision of Ghana cards ahead of the September 30th deadline, said “we cannot do that.” “There is no way that the NIA can register those people. It is technically, physically impossible. We had said way back in March that it was impossible. I have said it is like expecting a maiden to make a baby every three months,” he said.
Professor Kenneth Agyeman Attafuah explained that the NIA will not be able to provide all eligible Ghanaians with their Ghana cards owing to a lack of officers at its registration centres. “Today, there is only one office in a district. At the 200 registration centres, you may have about 16 NIA officials serving the people.
Today, there is only one office per district, and there are four people in that district office. The maximum is five at the regional offices. We augment the staff
numbers with national service personnel,” he said.
Weeks before the NIA made this revelation, the Ministry of Communications and Digitalization for the second time extended the SIM card registration
deadline from July 31 to September 30.
The exercise was extended because of challenges involved in the issuance of the Ghana card, Communications Minister Ursula Owusu-Ekuful admitted on July
31, 2022, in a press briefing. Days after the extension, it emerged that the number of people who trooped to the registration centres to register their SIM cards
had plummeted.
According to figures from the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, the number of subscribers re-registering their SIM cards fell to 5,861 on August 19, 2022, from about 235,000 recorded on July 31, 2022, when the extension was announced. This represented a 98% decline. The data also showed that by August 1, 2022, the number of registrations fell to 62,715, compared with the 235,460 recorded on July 28, 2022.
The trend continued until it dropped further to 5,861 by August 19th, 2022. Despite the decline in numbers and the NIA’s inability to provide all Ghana Cards, the NCA and the Communications Ministry have made no move to extend the registration deadline to ensure the affected Ghanaians are not disadvantaged.
Even though the NCA has been dragged to court, the Authority is yet to rescind its decision and provide the NIA more time to provide citizens with their Ghana
cards. Galamsey: 12 excavators seized; one arrested in Ashanti region Effects of blocked SIM cards on the economy should the NCA block SIM cards after September 30, as stated earlier, the government risks losing some of the taxes it generates from citizens who make use of voice and data services.
A communication service tax of 5% is levied on charges payable by both individual and corporate users of electronic communication services (ECS) provided by
service providers other than private electronic communication services.
Government will lose a large sum of money it would have generated from network service providers through the over one million network subscribers who have not registered their SIM cards. Also, network service providers will lose subscribers, thereby reducing their revenue. The assertion is that a number of Ghanaians yet to retrieve their Ghana cards engage in mobile money transactions. Government is able to generate revenue through its electronic transaction levy (e-levy) of 1.5% on mobile money transactions above the GHS100 threshold.
The revenue generated from this tax will decline as over one million network subscribers will be without an active SIM card.
The National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, has impulsed the Electoral Commission to accept other identification documents as alternatives to the Ghana Card during the upcoming voter registration drive.
Though the EC has assured that no willing Ghanaian of voting age will be left behind, he argued in a panel discussion on TV that, “If it happens that by that time [future voter registrations happen], everybody has the card, nobody suffers anything.”
“Why don’t you put in some safeguards in case that projection doesn’t turn out to be as you expect, then there is a safeguard to deal with the shortcoming, and you are rather closing all the safeguards and banking your hope on somebody’s promise.” Director of Electoral Services at the Electoral Commission, Serebour Quaicoe has said on several platforms that the EC intends to make the Ghana Card the sole means of identification during the
voter registration exercise.
According to him, the decision to use the Ghana Card is to prevent chaos at polling stations during elections. He cited confusion that emerged out of the 2020 election at the polling stations.
Meanwhile, on the EC’s website as of September 27, 2022, only two modes of identification have been outlined. They are; a valid National
Identification Card (Ghana Card) and a passport. This could mean that the EC is yet to update their website on the new identification process. In the absence of the valid ID’s above, an applicant must submit one completed Identification Guarantee Form endorsed by two voters. A proposed C.I. titled Public Regulations 2021 is anticipated to govern the next continuous voter registration campaign and is intended to replace these documents with the Ghana Card as the new law. Mr. Nketiah also stressed that the EC should not only rely on the National Identification Authority to execute its plans for future elections.
With less than two weeks until the end of the SIM card re-registration period, the National Identification Authority (NIA) has revealed that it will be unable to register all Ghanaians before the September 30, 2022, deadline.
Addressing the media at a press conference on Friday, September 16, 2022, Executive Secretary of
the NIA, Prof. Kenneth Agyeman Attafuah, explained that the authority has been saddled with financial and logistic difficulties in registering and issuing the Ghana card, which is the sole identification document for the SIM card registration.
Prof. Attafuah mentioned that currently there “is only one office in a district and there are 4 people
in that district office. At the 200 registration centres, you may have about 16 NIA officials serving the people.”
“That is not how the physical and logistical system has been designed to respond. We cannot do that. There is no way that the NIA can register those people. It is technically, physically impossible. We had said way back in March that it was impossible. I have said it is like expecting a maiden to make a baby every three months,” he added during a press conference on Friday.”
The aforementioned challenges bedevilling NIA, according to Prof Attafuah were communicated to the National Communications Authority (NCA) and the Ministry of Digitalisation and Communication before they announced the deadlines for the re-registration of SIM cards.
Despite describing the September 30 deadline as unfortunate, he said “it is not for NIA to proffer advice on that as it falls outside its mandate. However, I can say on authority that we have engaged actively with the National Communications Authority, and with the Minister [of Communications and Digitalisation] since last year.”
As of September 9, 2022, the NIA has issued 15,859,251 Ghana cards and is yet to print 528,360 cards as well as issue 763,877 cards, according to Director of Corporate Affairs, Dr Abudu Abdul Ganiyu.
The NIA, however, says it is working hard to clear its backlog before the stated deadline.
Nonetheless, the NCA has issued some punitive measures against mobile network subscribers who have failed to register their SIM cards.
These subscribers on September 5, 2022, were prohibited from using specific services, such as data and all outgoing voice calls once a week.
Some Ghanaians who are facing the brunt of NCA’s punitive actions have lamented that the stipulated time frame will not only affect subscribers but businesses as well.
A Pressure Group, the People’s Project, have sued the National Communications Authority (NCA) and the Attorney-General (A-G) over the ongoing SIM card re-registration exercise.
The group is asking the Supreme Court to declare the deadline for registration and the associated punitive measures for non-registration null and void, arguing of gold has in the long run destroyed Ghana’s water bodies and farmlands.
Unwavering about the concerns of Ghanaians, the Minister for Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu- Ekuful has stated that SIM card registration will help minimize fraudulent activities.
She iterated that defaulting subscribers who fail to meet the
September 30 deadline will have their SIM card deactivated.
However, individuals whose SIM cards will be blocked after the September 30 deadline will be given a six-month grace period to reclaim their SIM cards after registering.
The National Identification Authority (NIA) reports that the majority of non-citizen national identity cards (Ghana cards) issued in Ghana are held by Chinese nationals.
Executive Secretary of the NIA, Prof. Kenneth Agyeman Attafuah, Executive Secretary, said this at a press conference in Accra on Friday, September 16, 2022, to commemorate this year’s International Identity Day.
This comes in the wake of the recent controversy surrounding the re-entry of Huang En, also known as Aisha Huang, a Chinese citizen with a non-citizen Ghana card, who was repatriated in 2018 for alleged illegal mining.
According to the NIA, 34,712 non-citizen Ghana cards have been issued to Chinese nationals in Ghana. This figure represents 22% of Ghana’s 161,007 immigrants from 202 different countries.
With a total of 25,873 cards, Nigerians were the second-largest group of foreigners with non- citizen Ghana cards, followed by Indian citizens (20,110).
Per the figures provided by NIA, the cards issued to Germans constituted 4,329; Lebanon, 4,324; United Kingdom (UK), 4,133; South Africa, 3,194; 2,222; Cote D’Ivoire, 2,150 and Gabon, 1,958 cards.
Prof Attafuahstated that as of September 15, 2022, a total of 17,163,081 people had been enrolled onto the NIA system, with 16,627,326 cards printed and 15,869,026 cards issued.
The Executive Secretary stated that the Authority had implemented a robust system to verify all cards of Ghanaians for the purpose of transacting business with banks, as well as non-citizens who would use the card to apply for or renew their residence permit, open or run a bank account in the country.
Prof Attafuahasked African countries to step up efforts to ensure that the citizenry had legal identity to foster social, economic, and political inclusion. Prof. Attafuah urged African countries to step up efforts to ensure that citizens have legal identities in order to foster social, economic, and political inclusion.
He stated that the country would leave no stone unturned in ensuring that the Ghana card became “the single source of proof,” noting that the Authority had implemented a verification system that required
banks to authenticate individuals who used the card for various transactions since January 2021.
“With this verification system, if you go to the bank with or without your Ghana card, with your fingerprint, the bank is able to verify your identity as part of KYC (Know Your Customer) and give you a service,” Prof Attafuah noted.
The Executive Secretary hinted that the NIA would begin registering Ghanaians abroad in November 2022 and begin registering children in the country between the ages of
four and 15 in December 2022.
Meanwhile, Prof Attafuah stated that registration for the refugee identification card will begin next week.
He said continuous registration would also be carried out in all 16 designated regional and all 275 district offices of NIA.
He also promised that all 275 NIA district offices and all 16 NIA regional offices would participate in the continuous registration process.
Of all the nationalities of foreigners permanently resident in Ghana, the Chinese are the nationality that possesses the highest number of non-citizen National Identity cards (Ghana card).
In total, Chinese nationals have had 34,712 non-citizen Ghana cards issued to them, representing 22 per cent of the total 161,007 cards issued to citizens from 202 other foreign countries.
The Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority, Professor Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah, disclosed this last Friday at a press briefing in Accra to mark this year’s International Identity Day.
The disclosure comes amid recent the controversy of Huang En, popularly known as, Aisha Huang, a Chinese citizen with a non-citizen Ghana card re-entering the country after her deportation in 2018 over alleged illegal mining.
Nigerians constituted the second-largest group of foreign citizens with non-citizen Ghana cards with a total of 25,873 cards, while 20,110 bearers were citizens of India.
Per the figures provided by NIA, the cards issued to Germans constituted 4,329; Lebanese, 4,324, United Kingdom (UK) nationals, 4,133; South Africans, 3,194; Ivorians, 2,150 and Gabonese, 1,958 cards.
Providing an update on the number of cards issued in the country so far, Prof Attafuah said as of September 15, 2022, a total of 17,163,081 people had been enrolled on the NIA system, with 16,627,326 cards printed, and 15,869,026 cards issued.
The Executive Secretary said the Authority had introduced a robust system to verify all cards of Ghanaians for the purpose of transacting businesses with banks and to verify non-citizens who would use the card to apply for or renew their residence permit, open or run a bank account in the country.
He said the country would leave no chance in ensuring that the Ghana card became “the single source of proof,” noting that the Authority, since January 2021, introduced a verification system, which made banks authenticate individuals who used the card for various transactions.
“With this verification system, if you go to the bank with or without your Ghana card, with your fingerprint, the bank is able to verify your identity as part of KYC (Know Your Customer) and give you a service,” Prof Attafuah noted.
The Executive Secretary hinted that NIA would from November 2022 start the registration of Ghanaians abroad and embark on an exercise to register children in the country between the ages of four to 15 in December 2022.
Meanwhile, registration for the card for refugees would start next week, Prof Attafuah said.
He said continuous registration would also be carried out in all 16 designated regional and all 275 district offices of NIA.
The appeal comes after the Commission decided not to employ the guarantor system for the registration of voters in 2024.
The Ghana Card will be the only form of identity accepted by the EC for voter registration.
This will become effective once a constitutional provision that has not yet been laid matures.
The Deputy Chairman of the Commission in charge of operations, Samuel Tettey, at a media engagement on Thursday, September 8, said it is feasible with the collaboration of all stakeholders.
“Again, we call on the NIA to accelerate the pace of the printing of the Ghana Card to make it easy for anyone who is interested in registering with us to do so,†he said.
Mr. Tettey also called on the political parties and other stakeholders to encourage qualified applicants to register.
“We expect all the players in the electoral process, including political parties, to encourage all those who do not have Ghana Cards to visit the offices of the National Identification Authority and register for the Ghana Card.â€
After the arrest of Chinese galamsey kingpin, Aisha Huang, on Monday, September 5, 2022, it emerged that she is a Ghana Card holder, having acquired the ID from the National Identification Authority in February 2022.
Media reports suggested that Ms Huang despite last leaving by air, returned to Ghana via the eastern land border i.e. Togo.
Whilst the report is silent on when she first reentered and how many times she has been in and out of the jurisdiction, it turned out that she also used a different name on her return.
But NIA has denied registering any applicant by the name of Aisha Huang. According to the NIA, its National Identity Register (NIR) does not contain any record of a person named AISHA HUANG.
“Put differently, the name AISHA HUANG does not exist in the National Identification System (NIS) databaseâ€, the NIA said in a statement dated September 6, 2022.
Explaining the viral Ghana Card suggesting that the galamsey kingpin has been given the Ghana card, the authority said that the particular registration was done in 2014 with the name Huang En and was renewed in 2016 and 2018 in Kumasi.
It said a Chinese national tried to register a new non-resident Ghana Card in August 2022 with the name Ruixia Huang, but its system flagged it because the biometric details matched that of Huang En.
Since she could not provide proper details to authenticate her new identity, NIA in the statement said:
“Huang En opted to renew with the old details and then go through the affidavit and gazette process later, after which she would then provide the documents for the update to be done. Her renewed Non-Citizen Ghana Card was then issued to her on 25th August 2022, bearing the old name. This card is what is now impugned and trending on social media.â€
Member of Parliament for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, has alleged that Chinese galamsey kingpin, Aisha Huang was never deported from the country as claimed by the government in 2018.
In a tweet on September 6, Dafeamekpor premised his argument on the fact that the purported Ghana Card of Aisha Huang which has surfaced online was issued to her on Sunday, February 27, 2022.
He said the Chinese national was in the country for which reason her biometric details were able to be captured on a weekend.
“Evidence is that on Sunday, 27th February, 2022, Aisha Huan a.k.a Aisha En got her NIA Card issued to her by Govt. Same Govt said she had long been deported to China. Look, this woman was never deported that’s how come her biometric details could be captured for this weekend job,†Dafeamekpor tweeted.
Background
Chinese national and galamsey kingpin, Aisha Huang evaded immigration authorities and re-entered Ghana to conduct illegal business despite her controversial deportation in 2018.
Reports by Accra-based Citi News revealed that Huang despite last leaving by air, returned to Ghana via the eastern land border i.e. Togo.
Whilst the report is silent on when she first reentered and how many times she has been in and out of the jurisdiction, it turned out that she also used a different name on her return.
This was established with evidence that upon her return, Huang applied for and obtained the Ghana Card in February 2022 using the name “Huang En.”
The year of issuance of the non-citizen Ghana Card has however been dismissed by NIA.
The Citi News report added that she always sneaked out of Ghana when she got intelligence about the possibility of an arrest.
Despite coming in through Aflao, Aisha made the Ashanti Regional capital of Kumasi her base from where she engaged in the business of selling mining materials. She was arrested with other accomplices at Ahodwo in Kumasi.
On Monday, September 5, 2022, the Accra Circuit Court 9 presided by Samuel Bright Acquah, remanded Aisha Huang, into custody.
This was after Miss Huang, together with three other Chinese nationals, were brought before the court on charges including engaging in the sale and purchase of minerals without a license and mining without a license.
The court could not take into record the pleas of the four suspects because there was no interpreter to help translate proceedings for the Chinese nationals.
The accused persons were not represented by a lawyer. The court adjourned sitting on the case to Wednesday, September 14, 2022.
Not everyone will have Ghana Card by Sept. ending; It’s ‘Unrealistic’ And ‘Impossible’! – NIA Boss to Ursula
Executive Director of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Professor Ken Agyeman Attafuah seems to have burst Hon. Ursula Owusu’s bubble about getting all Ghanaians to register their SIM cards with Ghana Card by the end of September.
The Communications and Digitalisation Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, issued a directive to Ghanaians who haven’t yet engaged in the ongoing SIM re-registration exercise to do so or have their SIM cards deactivated.
She has extended the deadline for the registration exercise to the end of September this year hoping that all Ghanaians would have their SIM cards registered. This is the third time of extending the deadline for the exercise.
Deadline Extension
Speaking at a press briefing on Sunday, 31st July and later in an interview with Kwami Sefa Kayi on “Kokrokoo“, Hon. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful said; “Upon consultation with the industry and in view of the challenges enumerated above, I have very reluctantly decided to grant a conditional extension. The programme will be extended to 30th September to end on the anniversary of its commencement.â€
“That will give us one full year of SIM registration. It will be reviewed at the end of this month and any SIM that has not been fully registered by the end of August will be barred from receiving certain services including voice and data services,†she added.
It Is Not Possible
But days after her speech, the NIA – the body mandated to establish and manage a national data centre, by setting up a system to collect, process, store, retrieve and disseminate personal data on Ghanaian citizens and legally and permanently resident foreign nationals, and to issue national identity cards – says it will not be possible for all Ghanaians to receive their Ghana Cards to enable them register their SIM cards before or by the deadline.
Prof Attafuah who heads the NIA, stated on PeaceFM that there are some bottlenecks that need to be taken into serious consideration.
He was emphatic that not all the applicants will have their cards before the deadline because the NIA’s capacity is limited; pointing out that this is because the Authority has inadequate number of personnel to register all Ghanaians and distribute their cards to them by the end of September.
“We have opened 276 operational district offices. Every constituency has an office…On the 3rd of November, 2021, we opened 16 Regional offices and 276 district offices operational simultaneously which is a different case but they are all working. Initially, we had some resistance from some political quarters but the truth of the matter is that, at the end of the day, all these offices are functional and serving the good people of this country.
“Every Regional office has only 5 people. Every district office has only 4 people. During the mass registration, 16 people were in every registration center and in every district, there will be about 200 registration centers. Today, there is only one office in every district or municipality and it has either a maximum of five or a maximum of four”, he said.
Unrealistic Expectation
Prof. Ken Attafuah also added that the law that establishes the NIA didn’t take into effect the SIM re-registration exercise, explaining the law required the NIA to “exist in perpetuity and for Ghanaian to go there and register at their leisure and pleasure“.
The NIA, he expounded, “is like a hospital or a maternity ward; you go there when you need to after the mass registration but today, it’s become impromptu for everyone and the strength does not exist“.
Prof. Attafuah stressed; “It is an unrealistic expectation that we will be able to give all of them their cards…It is not possible to do that. What is possible, however, is to put in greater efforts and make sure as many as can get it can but to guarantee that every single one is not possible”.
“The number of SIM cards linked to the Ghana Cards are less than 15 million and yet we have issued more than 15.5 million, so that’s also another factor to consider. Also, by the NCA’s own statistics, it has not been possible since October 1st when they began to link all the available Ghana Cards to the SIM cards“, he further said.
He made these submissions during an interview on Peace FM’s “Kokrokoo” programme Friday morning.
Source: peacefmonline
DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author(s) and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana.
The Deputy Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC) in charge of Corporate Services, has warned prospective voters to obtain a Ghana card since that will be a requirement for voting in the 2024 election.
Speaking in an interview on The Pulse on Wednesday, Dr. Bossman Asare said without a Ghana card, one will not be registered to vote.
This, he said is because the Ghana card has made an impact in our society with almost 17 million Ghanaians registered for it.
“Commission in collaboration with our partners took the decision that now let us have the Ghana card as the main requirement.
“So what this means is that as soon as you acquire your Ghana card with a continuous registration, you just go to our district office where you are located then you go and register and your name will be put on the roll of voters,†he said.
For this reason, he used the opportunity to encourage citizens between the ages of 15 to 18 to register for their Ghana card “so that as soon as you turn 18 then you present it to the registration officer then instantly you are going to be registered.â€
The National Identification Authority(NIA), has announced that it will not offer Identity Management Services on Monday, 1st August 2022.
The Identity Management Services by the NIA includes replacement of lost cards, update of personal details and error correction.
The Authority in a press statement dated Sunday, 31st July, 2022 , stated that these services will be continue on Tuesday, 2nd August 2022.
“The National Identification Authority wishes to inform the general public that there would be no Identity Management Services (replacement of lost cards, updating of personal records and correction of errors) at the Elwak Sports Stadium on Monday, 1st August 2022.
These services would resume on Tuesday, 2nd August 2022, any inconvenience this may cause is deeply regretted,” the statement added.
More than 15.7 million eligible citizens have received their Ghana Cardssince the registration exercise started in 2019, the Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Prof. Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah, has disclosed.
Prof. Agyemang Attafuah, giving a breakdown of the total number of registered cards, stated that 16,969,034 persons have registered for the Ghana Card, with about 16,535,623 cards printed.
He further indicated that out of the 16,969,034 printed cards, 808,493 Ghanaians have not been issued with their Ghana Cards.
The NIA boss stated that the non-issuance of the Ghana Card is not a deliberate attempt to frustrate the Ghanaian people.
Prof. Attafuah ascribed double-registration, change of vital data as the cause of non-issued Ghana Cards.
He disclosed that, “there are people who have double-registered. That is potentially a criminal offence. Those ones are being individually investigated. There are those whose cards have gone into adjudication, not because of double registration but because they have sought to change their vital data in the custody of the authority, such as bio-data. For such people, the system arrests their application, and it joins a queue.â€
The NIA boss touted that until the outstanding issues are rectified, some Ghanaians can not receive their cards.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Card is the sole identification document being used for the SIM card re-registration exercise nationwide. The exercise which commenced on October 1, 2021, is expected to end July 31, 2022.
Earlier, the Government extended the deadline for the registration of SIM from March, 31st 2022 to 31st July 2022 due to the low number of SIM card registration recorded.
Government has insisted on not extending the deadline, therefore, citizens who fail to comply with the directive before the deadline will have their SIM cards deactivated.
Speaking at the launch of ePharmacy in Accra on Monday, July 18, 2022, this astronomical increase is due to government’s digitalization agenda.
“They do not realise that through the Ghana card, we have been able to increase the proportion of Ghanaians with Tax Identification Numbers from 4% when we came into office to 85%,†he said.
It would be recalled that in April 2021, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) in collaboration with the National Identification Authority (NIA) set up 14 offices across the country to synchronise the Tax Identification Numbers (TINs) with the Ghana card.
The move was to rope in many people into the country’s tax net, as well as facilitate the raising of revenue from the large informal.
Former President, John Dramani Mahama, has charged Members of Parliament in the Minority Group to keep a keen eye on the activities of the Executive arm of government.
Delivering a speech at a closing ceremony of a retreat for Minority Group MPs at the Volta Serene hotel in Ho on Sunday, July 17, 2022, Mahama said the style of this administration has been to subjugate and dominate institutions for parochial and partisan gain, and as such, there is a need for it to be monitored.
“These institutions have thus become pliant tools for the furtherance of the political ends of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and President Akufo-Addo,†he added.
He named the Electoral Commissionas one of such institutions “which instead of making it easy for our citizens to take part in elections, rather takes delight in making it difficult.â€
“They appear determined to ensure the disenfranchisement of sections of our population at all costs through a misguided insistence on the use of the Ghana Card as the only source of identification for a voter card. How do you do this, knowing that the Ghana Card is not available to everyone who should have one?â€
“You [Minority MPs] have become the immediate hope of a people who labour under irresponsible governance and abuse of office. There is the need therefore to meet this expectation by injecting further impetus into your work by keeping an even keener eye on the activities of the Executive.â€
He admitted that the Ghana Card is a relatively new feature of the country and has its merits in the scheme of things.
His contention is that it is being brandished more as a political tool around which all manner of schemes is being fashioned ahead of the elections.
He believes there is the need to allow sufficient time for its full integration “before this kind of unhelpful exclusion of all other legitimately acquired, credible and time-tested forms of identification is implemented.â€
Mr. John Mahama suspects foul play with the “haste on the part of the Electoral Commission to exclude all other means of identification.â€
Even though the Electoral Commission has clarified that it is only demanding the Ghana card for continuous registration and is not in the process of compiling a new one, Mr. Mahama is not convinced.
He is demanding a system that enables all political parties and relevant stakeholders to possess the capacity to monitor same in real-time, to avoid fraud and exploitation to the undue advantage of any party.
Former President, John Dramani Mahama says the Electoral Commission is seeking to use the Ghana Cardas a political tool to frustrate Ghanaians in their quest to secure voters Card for the next elections.
According to him, the Commission is one of many state agencies that have become pliant instruments in the advancement of the parochial interest of the Akufo-Addo administration.
“One such institution is the Electoral Commission, which instead of making it easy for our citizens to take part in elections, rather takes delight in making it difficult. They appear determined to ensure the disenfranchisement of sections of our population at all costs through a misguided insistence on the use of the Ghana Card as the only source of identification for a voter card.
“How do you do this, knowing that the Ghana Card is not available to everyone who should have one? The Ghana Card is a relatively new feature of our national life and has its merits in the scheme of things. At the moment, it is being brandished more as a political tool around which all manner of schemes is being fashioned towards elections. There is the need to allow sufficient time for its full integration into our way of life before this kind of unhelpful exclusion of all other legitimately acquired, credible and time-tested forms of identification are implemented,†Mr Mahama said during a speech at the closing ceremony of a Minority caucus workshop.
He stressed: “The National Identification Authority cannot claim to have covered every Ghanaian who should be registered or distributed all the cards printed to those who have been captured in their system. They have failed to distribute hundreds of thousands of cards to people who have registered. Until full and total coverage is achieved in the roll out of the Ghana Card, room must be made for those who are yet to be served, to exercise their democratic rights of voting. They cannot be excluded from the voter register due to no fault of theirsâ€.
Former Deputy Information Minister under the N.D.C in the John Dramani Mahamaadministration, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, has alleged that the Electoral Commission is seeking to compile a new voters register for the 2024 elections with the Ghana card as the only source of identification.
According to him, this comes barely two years after the Commission spent over $80 million on a new register for the 2020 elections.
In a Facebook post, he said there must be something really amiss with Jean Mensah and her colleagues in the leadership of the Electoral Commission with regards to this decision.
He alleged that the “object, of course, is to manipulate that register to save the blushes of this hopeless government which is destined to be thrown out by the electorate in 2024.â€
A total of 4,648 National Identification Cards, representing 35.58 percent of cards printed are yet to be collected by the applicants at the Tema West Municipal of the National Identification Authority (NIA).
Ms. Constance Pokua Osei, Tema West NIA Director disclosed this at the General Assembly of the Tema West Municipal Assembly (TWMA) and out of a total of 13,442 cards printed for the area, 8,749 had been issued with 4,648 representing 35.58 percent yet to be collected
Ms. Osei added that the total enrolment between November 2021 and May 27, 2022, was 3,931.
She said when the deadline for the registration of all sim cards with the Ghana Cardwas extended to July, residents stopped going for their printed cards, adding that in a day only about 20 people go for their cards while an average 15 people go for the registration.
She added that it had also led to low enrolment as the long queues that used to be seen at the office had vanished with staff virtually hoping that it would improve daily.
“Now there is no queue, people just walk in and have their data captured in no time, sometimes in mornings we even have less than 10 people available to collect their cards.
“We still have over 4,000 cards lying there to be issued, and they are just not coming. I understand them, it is frustrating after visiting the office many times and the cards were not ready,†she stated.
She, therefore, pleaded with Assembly Members to inform their residents that the cards were ready.
On other challenges, Ms. Osei said bigger office accommodation and staffing was a problem, as currently the premises they were operating from was small.
She said there were only four members of staff, which she said were not enough, and therefore, appealed for some National Service Personnel to be attached to the office.
Meanwhile, Assembly Members of Tema West have expressed misgivings about the conduct of some officers of the NIA in the municipality, saying their customer relations were poor.
Mr. Kwesi Poku Bosompem, Assemblyman for Sakumono Electoral Area, and Tema West New Patriotic Party (NPP) Chairman described the conduct of the workers at the NIA office as rude.
Mr. Bosompem, who is a former Presiding Member of the Assembly said staff and contract workers of the office needed to be re-oriented and given customer service skills to relate better with the public.
Mr. Henry Ubor, Assemblyman for Klagon said he has been to the NIA office many times to monitor the queue for residents of Klagon to go and register and could say that their services were poor.
Mr. Ubor said: “If the NIA Tema West Director was reporting to them that people were not going for their cards, it was not true as most people were turned away. It is not like the people are not going for the cards, they have rejected the cards to them because anytime they go and queue, they are turned away.â€
The National Communications Authority (NCA) has stated that there have so far been 13,676,648 SIM Cards successfully linked to the Ghana Card system.Â
This number is the total number of subscribers who have completed their registration process using the *404# platform. Â
Also, the Authority said that there has also been a total of 9,744,071 completed SIM Card registrations in the country.Â
This figure, a photo statement shared by the NCA on its Twitter handle said, are those who have fully completed their SIM registrations in the country.Â
All these figures were however as of March 11, 2022, it added.Â
According to the Minister of Communication, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the re-registration of SIM cards is to monitor and track down persons who use their phones for criminal activities.Â
This is to end the rising cybercrime issues in the country.
With the first stage of the registration process, you will have to link the SIM card to the Ghana Card via USSD (*404#).
For stage 2, you visit your service provider (agent or customer care) to complete this stage of the registration.
People who fail to re-register their SIM cards will have them blocked, the communication minister noted.
The National Identification Authority (NIA) has disclosed that another Nigerian called Usman Emmanuel has been prosecuted for posing as a Ghanaian to register for the GhanaCard.
According to the NIA, Usman Emmanuel after presenting a valid Ghanaian Birth Certificate successfully went through the registration process and was left with the collection of the GhanaCard.
In a statement issued, the NIA added that its Regional Registration Officer for the Ashanti Region suspected that Usman Emmanuel was not a Ghanaian when he came to collect his card and reported him to the police.
“The suspect was arraigned before the Asokore Mampong District Magistrate Court and was charged with the offence of falsely providing information about himself contrary to section 17 (C) of the National Identification Authority Act 707 (Act 2006).”
“At the end of the trial, the court found him guilty of the offence and was sentenced to a fine of 250 penalty units, equivalent to GHC 3,000.00 or in default 6 months imprisonment,” the statement by the NIA read.
In January 2022, the Adjabeng District Court in Accra sentenced a Nigerian Olu Olarusi Toyin Tracy and a Ghanaian accomplice Yvette Mensah, to a fine of 300 penalty units (GHS 3,600) each, for providing false information to the NIA.
The Madina District Court also sentenced a Nigerian and resident of Lapaz, a suburb of Accra, Derick Armstrong, to four months imprisonment for falsely representing himself as a Ghanaian in an effort to register for the GhanaCard.
The Ghana Immigration Service has announced that from today (Tuesday, March 1, 2022), Ghanaian holders of the Ghana Card can travel on it into Ghana from all parts of the world.
A press statement by the Ghana Immigration Service on Monday explained that dual citizen Ghanaians, who hitherto required visas to return to Ghana on their foreign passports, will also now be able to travel back to Ghana on their Ghana Card, without requiring entry visas.
The affirmative statement by the Ghana Immigration Service follows a similar one by the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL) last month, which asked all airlines in the world through the International Air Transport Association (IATA), that the Ghana Card, would from March 1, 2022, be recognised as an electronic international travelling identity document for all holders of the Ghana Card.
The GACL’s announcement to the airlines, followed a Key Ceremony at the headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in Montreal, Canada, to officially recognise the Ghana Card as a Machine Readable Travel Document (MRTD).
As the Ghana Card e-passport takes effect, the Ghana Immigration Authority’s press statement has thrown more light on the Ghana Card as an e-passport and its limitations.Â
For now, as was announced by the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, holders of the Ghana Card can now use it to travel back to Ghana from any part of the world, as well as use it for travels within the ECOWAS region, which does not require entry visas.
The second phase of the Ghana Card e-passport will be when Ghana reaches bilateral agreements with countries, which will make it possible for Ghanaian holders of the Ghana Card to use it to travel to other countries with electronic visas issued on the card.
The Ghana Immigration Service has also announced measures it has put in place at the airport to process Ghanaians returning home on their Ghana Card.
Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia first announced the government had nearly completed the process to turn the Ghana Card into an electronic travelling document for Ghanaians (e-passport) by the end of the first quarter of the year.
The e-passport idea received a major boost when the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) recognised the Ghana card as a Machine Readable Travel Document (MRTD) that can be read and verified by the ICAO Public Key Directory (PKD) at most airports globally.
The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has announced an extension of the deadline for the merger of SSNIT and National Identification (NIA) numbers for members of the scheme.
Announcing the extension in a release dated January 5, 2021, the management of SSNIT said the deadline initially fixed for December 31, 2021, is now slated for June 30, 2022.
Management of the scheme has thus entreated members who are yet to merge their numbers or acquire their Ghana Cards to do so or risk being denied access to their pensions and other social security-related services from SSNIT.
“From 1st July 2022, the Ghana Card will be the only identification recognised by the Trust. This is in compliance with Regulation 7 (1) of the National Identity Register Regulations, 2012, L.I. 2111 which requires the use of the Ghana Card as identification for “transactions pertaining to individuals in respect of pensions†and “transactions that have social security implications.â€
“Employers are to note that they will be required to use only the NIA numbers of their workers to process Contribution Reports and make payments. Voluntary contributors will also have to pay their contributions using their NIA numbers,†the statement said.
The management of SSNIT added, “that Members who fail to merge their SSNIT and NIA numbers will be denying themselves access to pensions and other social security related services from SSNIT.â€
According to SSNIT, there will be no further extension of the June 30 deadline with the Ghana Card becoming the only card accepted for all transactions for the trust.
The micro-blogging site, Twitter, has once again been set ablaze as photos and videos of people joining long queues at the National Identification Authority (NIA) and telecommunication operators offices across the country have popped up.
The re-registration of Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards commenced on Friday, October 1, 2021, and is expected to end on March 31, 2022.
People who fail to re-register their SIM will have it blocked.
As the deadline draws nigh, several people have thronged the premises of the NIA and the telcos to join long queues to get their Ghana card and biometric registration of their SIM cards done, respectively.
Reacting to this growing development, tweeps have wondered why the re-registration exercise could not be done digitally.
Others suggested that these telcos have applicants on scheduled dates to avoid the crowd and also curb the spread of COVID-19.
In some tweets sighted by GhanaWeb, a user by the name Abraham Bansi said, “A simple phone app or website to let applicants book preferred time to visit the office will reduce this mess, but no, there is this inexplicable joy public servants have when they see their fellow Ghanaians queueing for hours to access a service… Ghana card”
“Why do we have to join queues to register everything in Ghana? This Ghana card /sim registration thing we fit do am online but naa dem say we for join in the queue,” another tweep said.
“Biometric data was collected during Ghana card registration, now linking your SIM card to same Ghana card requires taking of another biometric data. Doesn’t make sense. (Just creating long queues),” another tweep said.
Goldenflyboy said, “Why should we go to the various networks offices for biometric verification whilst it’s already on our Ghana card? what sort of stress is that”
“A simple phone app or website to let applicants book preferred time to visit the office will reduce this mess, but no, there is this inexplicable joy public servants have when they see their fellow Ghanaians queueing for hours to access a service… Ghana card”
The SIM card re-registration exercise is to monitor and track down persons who use their phones for criminal activities.
Read some tweets on the long queue at various NIA and telcos offices below.
These connection men in government always want to steal from Ghanaians through any means. EC used $100M biometric registration, NIA used $1.2B for the registration of ghana card. Instead of Ursula Owusu ordering for exchange of data for this sim registration, see the stress.
This ghana card-sim registration thing, be like they’ll block my SIM o because I don’t have time for this queue. Why do you have to capture our biometrics again if NIA has that information and we are using our GHANA CARD??? Why can’t we just link it and go?
Biometric data was collected during Ghana card registration, now linking your SIM card to same Ghana card requires taking of another biometric data. Doesn’t make sense. (Just creating long queues)
Everyone seems to be talking about the Ghana card and the long queues with all these stress which I totally agree….but why is no one talking about how they promoting the spread of COVID This same government that is supposedly following COVID protocols 🙄🤦🏾♀️
A simple phone app or website to let applicants book preferred time to visit the office will reduce this mess, but No, there is this inexplicable joy public servants have when they see their fellow Ghanaians queueing for hours to access a service… Ghana card
Why do we have to join queues to register every in Ghana? This Ghana card /sim registration thing we fit do am online but naa dem say we for join in the queue🤦🏽🤦🏽
The Ghana Card is set to become the sole identification document to be accepted if a person wants to officially register a business in the country.
According to Registrar General, Jemima Oware, the move will take effect in January 2022 when only the card issued by the National Identification Authority, NIA, will be admissible.
“From January of next year, it is just going to be the NIA card. Our system speaks with other institutions such as the Ghana Post to the National Identification Authority to identify people in our system,†she said in a programme that aired on Joy News channel.
When the new rule kicks in, it effectively means that all other requirements that are currently demanded especially the Tax Identification Number (TIN) which is issued by the Ghana Revenue Authority, GRA, will become defunct to the process.
The use of the Ghana Card also means that the processes involved currently in registering a business has been condensed significantly from 17 to three steps.
“Most of the agencies that have anything to do with business registration, have been linked up with us electronically. For instance, our system speaks to Ghana Revenue Authority system to generate the TIN. Our systems are going to be speaking to National Identification Authority system to identify.â€
The National Identification Authority (NIA) has said plans are underway to integrate the Voter Identification Card into the Ghana Card to enable bearers of the latter vote with it in 2024 General Elections.
Speaking to Kofi Adoma Nwanwani on the Anopa Bↄfoↄ morning show on Tuesday, October 13, 2021, spokesperson for the Authority, Abdul Ganiwu disclosed that the only restraining problem in getting holders of Ghana Card to vote is the polling station number.
“Between now and 2024 is a long period to engage the Electoral Commission (EC) so that they can generate that information [polling station numbers] for Ghana Card users. So, when you are 18 years and above, you can tell the EC where you want to vote and it will be done,†he said.
The NIA estimates that 85% of Ghanaians aged 15 years and above have been registered for the NIA card.
Mr. Ganiwu noted that the system is designed to automatically detect and update information of persons who are below the voting age to enable them exercise their rights.
The Ghana Card is expected to replace all identity cards in use for accessing services across the country.
Currently, it has been integrated into the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) system to help bearers transact business under the scheme.
Telecommunication companies have also been directed to register all sim card users with it, without which their numbers would be blocked.
Executive secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Professor Kenneth Attafuah, has described the Ghana Card as a powerful tool that could be used for any desired thing including travels in the country and beyond.
Professor Attafuah disclosed that Ghanaians will soon use the Ghana Card as their passports for West African and foreign travels.
He noted that the Ghana Card already has an electronic passport on it which is valid for West African travels.
He said discussions have been held with the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) concerning this new development.
Professor Attafuah said, “We had a beautiful meeting with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs last Friday. We are talking about the modalities for getting two things done… One is the onboarding of the passport, data integration with the passport office and also even how you get to use the Ghana Card to travel. I indicated that the Ghana Card is a powerful tool, it already has an electronic passport on it, which is valid for travel within West Africa.â€
“The conversation we had with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and NITA is to get the appropriate certification and International Standardisation Organisation Certification and the International Civil Aviation Organisation Certification (ICAO) so that the Ghana Card itself can be a valid passport for travel to Europe, the American countries.â€
Meanwhile, the National Identification Authority will register Ghanaians living abroad for the Ghana Card once this dream comes to fruition.
He said this on Asaase Breakfast Show on Monday, July 12, 2021.
This follows the successful merging of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) database with the National Identification Authority (NIA) on June 28, 2021.
The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) will from Monday June 28, 2021 commence the merger of members on its scheme and that of the card bearers on the National Identification Authority’s (NIA) database.
This comes on the back of a meeting with stakeholders to sensitize them on the merger of SSNIT numbers with the NIA numbers of members of the scheme.
A statement issued by the Trust and sighted GhanaWeb explained that the merger is expected to provide convenience and comfort as citizens will only use one card, the Ghana Card, for all SSNIT transactions.
“The merger is also in compliance with directives from the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) and Regulation 7 (1) of the National Identity Register Regulations, 2012, L.I. 2111 which requires the use of the Ghana Card as identification for “transactions pertaining to individuals in respect of pensions,†the statement explained
“From January 2022, the Ghana Card will be the only identification recognised by the Trust. All employers will also be required to use only the NIA numbers of their workers to process Contribution Reports and make payments. Voluntary contributors will have to pay their contributions using their NIA numbers,†it added.
The Trust urged members to visit their website https://www.ssnit.org.gh/member/ and follow the instructions to merge their numbers.
It added that members can also visit the nearest SSNIT Branch with their Ghana Cards, valid email addresses and phone numbers to have the merger done.
The intended merger is expected to improve the way of doing business with the Trust by enabling a convenient means to allow members to use one card, that is the Ghana Card, for all transactions.
The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has revealed that there is an ongoing processes to merge the 15 million Ghanaians on the National Identification database with that of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service to offer employers a flexible opportunity to check the criminal records of employees or persons they plan to employ.
According to Dr. Bawumia, the move is to offer employers the opportunity to be able to employ persons of high repute. It is also geared at making the Ghana Card the unique identification record in the country. When completed, this would mean that the criminal record of over half the population can be accessed at the fingertips as the search can be easily done through the mobile phone.
“Going forward we are going to be linking the National ID with the criminal database to allow people to be able to check the criminal backgrounds on their mobile devices. In case you are employing a driver or anybody, you should be able to check the background of the person without going to the police headquarters and going through all of that process. Now, we want to digitize the whole process and once you have the national ID number, you should be able to get the background of that person.â€
SIM card re-registration
He added that the process to re-register all SIM cards in the country is also aimed at enabling SIM cards to be merged with the Ghana Card for easy identification of all persons using mobile phones. “In the next few months, we would be linking SIM cards to the National ID. All the Mobile SIM cards that we have in the country would be linked to unique National ID numbers. Discussions are ongoing but it would happen this year.â€
Ghana Card and banking
He further revealed that banks are also being roped into using the Ghana Card as the primary identification card for all their customers. “We would do same with bank accounts so that the verification needed in opening and operating a bank account would be linked to the National ID number. We would have every bank customer uniquely identified; that process would soon start.â€
Ghana Card and CAGD
He said government is seriously working to take off ghost names from its payroll. As a result, there are frantic efforts at linking the Ghana Card to government payroll administrator, the Controller and Accountant Generals Department (CAGD) to ensure that the menace is dealt with.
“We are linking the National ID card to the Controller and Accountant Generals Department; this is where the government payroll is done. For many years we have been struggling with ghost workers on government payroll and once this is completed, we hope to make ghost names on government payroll history,†Dr. Bawumia said.
Already merged services
Already, the Ghana Card has been merged with Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT); National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and Tax Identification Number (TIN) of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA); a move which has seen an increase in the database of these institutions.
The hope is to ride on the back of the merger to increase government revenue and to provide better services to clients. The Vice President was speaking at the Mobile Technology for Development (MT4D) as the keynote speaker.
The Parliamentary Candidate for the New Patriotic Party in the Mpraeso Constituency, Davis Ansah Opoku (OPK), has urged market women to brace themselves for more support from the Government as it plans to use Ghana Card number as Tax Identification Number.
Mr Opoku made this revelation during the sod-cutting ceremony for the construction of a modern market for the people of Asakraka in the Kwahu South District of Ghana.
He said, “I receive report each day about the difficulties in getting your TIN, but I have good news for you, from 2021 and beyond, as part of Government’s digitization efforts, your Ghana Card Number will double as your Tax Identification.
“This will mean that you can easily open a bank account, access MASLOC loans and even the recent COVID-19 Business support program,” he added.
Touching on the achievements of President Akufo Addo, the vibrant youth leader of the NPP, reminded the gathering of the difficulties they had in paying the fees of their wards who got admitted to Senior High Schools (SHS) before the introduction of the Free SHS programme which had relieved them of that burden.
“Hitherto, our mothers will sell their precious properties to finance our secondary education. Today, through the visionary leadership of President Akufo-Addo, we are not paying anything under the Free Senior School Education Program,” he said.
The District Chief Executive for Kwahu South, Emmanuel Atta Ofori Snr enumerated the achievements of the Government under the one million dollars per constituency project.
He said the district was currently constructing a Police post and a nurses’ quarters at Adawso and Mframa, respectively.
On his part, the paramount Chief of Kwahu Asakraka and Apedwahene of the Kwahu Traditional Council, who doubles as a member of the council of state, Nana Mireku Nyame Nyampong III, applauded President Akufo-Addo for the sterling leadership of service to the people of Asakraka and Ghanaians in general.
He used the occasion to call on his subjects to vote for Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo and Davis Ansah Opoku to continue the development plan of the Government.
The market established some 70 years ago and currently in a Deplorable state, will have ultra-modern stalls when completed.
The National Identification Authority (NIA) has announced that the mop-up registration exercise for the Greater Accra Region will end today, 8 September 2020.
The NIA began the mop-up registration in the Greater Accra Region on Monday, 24 August 2020.
The Authority, however, noted that although the mop-up registration will end today, the “issuance of printed cards will continue at all registration centres till Friday, 11th September 2020.â€
It, therefore, advised “Applicants who have not received their Ghana Cards†to go for them during the period.
The NIA also entreated all “qualified Ghanaians who have still not registered†to do so before the mop-up ends today.
The exercise is targeted at persons aged 15 and above who could not be registered for the Ghana card during the mass registration exercise.
The NIA conducted a similar exercise from Sunday, 2 August to Sunday, 16 August 2020 in the Oti, Volta and Ashanti Regions.
Also, the mop-up exercise for the Ahafo, Bono East and Bono regions will take place from Thursday, 27 August to Friday, 11 September 2020.
That of the Ahafo, Bono East and Bono Regions is scheduled to run from Thursday, 20 August to Friday, 4 September 2020.
The Authority began the mass registration of Ghanaians for the Ghana card in 2019.
Chief Executive Officer of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Prof Ken Agyeman Attafuah says they are on course to ensure that legitimate Ghanaians are issued a national identity card by the end of the ongoing mop-up exercise.
“As of now, we still have some days left to conduct the exercise. We are to end on September 11, so I am confident that by the time we end the exercise, people in Bono, Bono East, Ahafo, and Greater Accra where the mop-up exercise is currently ongoing will get their card.
“Getting this Ghana card will see to it that we are able to ensure social, economic and political inclusion in this country,†he said.
The mop-up exercise, which began in August is targeting persons aged 15 years and above who were unable to participate in the mass Ghana Card registration which was commenced by the NIA in 2019.
As of January 2020, the Authority had registered only 7.2 million people out of the total 16.7 million it had targeted.
The current mop-up exercise follows similar ones conducted in the Ashanti, Volta, and the Oti Regions from August 2 to August 16, 2020.
The Authority also  revised the dates for the Bono, Bono East, and Ahafo regions and announced the new August 27, 2020, to September 11, 2020 deadline.
Speaking to JoyNews during a monitoring tour of the exercise in the Bono Region, the NIA boss said, unlike the previous exercise which was hampered by some technical and logistic issues, the current mop-up exercise has been free of such hurdles.
He, however, expressed worry over the attitude of some Ghanaians with regards to the various Covid-19 safety protocols put in place.
“From my tour, I have seen that the registration centres are being highly patronized. I have also noticed that people are observing the Covid-19 protocols with the exception of one place I went to around Kintampo where nine people did not have on face masks.
“But they understood and left the place immediately we spoke to them.
“But what got me worried was a centre I went to on my way from Bono to Bono East Region.
“When we got there the place was crowded but after we spoke to them for some 15minutes and explained the deadlines to them, most of them left.
“So now they are to report according to the time given to them.â€
The National Identification Authority (NIA) mop-up exercise for the registration of the Ghana card in the Greater Accra Region recorded a slow start yesterday.
A visit to some registration centres in the capital revealed virtually empty seats with few registrants undertaking the exercise rather allowing for smooth observance of COVID-19 safety protocols.
The exercise expected to run until September 8, 2020 is to allow for citizens, 15 years and above who were unable to register in the initial phases of the exercise across the country, to do so.
The mop-up will also take place in the Bono, Bono East and Ahafo regions from August 27 to September 11, 2020.
At the Kaneshie Anglican JHS centre in the Okaikoi South Constituency, only 22 persons had successfully registered for the card as of 3:00pm when the Ghanaian Times went there, with officials practically idle at post.
“We have very low turn-out, many people are not aware of the mop-up exercise, so we need more publicity on it,†Mr Nathaniel Plange, a registration official stated.
According to him, there was low education on processes for guaranteeing for a person without the required documentation for the card, expatiating that, “Unlike the voter registration where anyone who has the card can guarantee for another, this is an oath, therefore, it demands that the person who vouches for you must be a direct relative or you present two government officials who have the Ghana card.â€
He noted: “We have had many people being turned away because the guarantors they bring are not qualified.â€
The situation was similar at the Kaneshie Cripples Home where officials complained of intermittent network challenges, though it had little bearing on the exercise as registrants trickled in one after the other.
“This is the first day and it is normal to experience a low turnout. We believe in the coming days, the numbers will pick up and more people who are yet to register will come and do so,†an official who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.
At the Djaman Presbyterian Church centre in the Weija-Gbawe Constituency, the exercise had halted due to network challenges though officials indicated that a report had been made to authorities for redress.
Turnout, however, was quite impressive at the centre, as the supervisor, Mr Edem Kokroko, confirmed that about 50 people had registered “from about 7:30am when the exercise begun.â€
The NIA has targeted 16.7 million Ghanaians to register for the Ghana Card, but at the end of its mass registration exercise, it was yet to achieve its target of registering 80 per cent of the population due to logistical challenges.
Already, the Authority has conducted a mop-up registration exercise in the Ashanti, Volta and Oti regions from August 2 to August 16, 2020.
The National Identification Authority (NIA) has released new dates for a mop-up exercise for the Ghana Card registration in the Greater Accra Region.
The exercise will now start on August 24, 2020, and run until September 8, 2020.
The mop-up registration exercise had initially been set for August 16 to August 29 in the Greater Accra Region.
The NIA has also revised the dates for the Bono, Bono East and Ahafo regions. The mop-up will now take place from August 27, 2020, to September 11, 2020.
The Bono, Bono East and Ahafo regions had also been scheduled from August 20 to September 4.
The NIA commenced the mass Ghana Card registration exercise in 2019. It had registered over 7.2 million people as of January 16, 2020.
The mop-up exercise is targeting persons aged 15 years and above who were unable to register for the Ghana Card.
The Authority has already conducted a mop-up registration exercise in the Ashanti, Volta and the Oti Regions from August 2 to August 16, 2020.
The authority was unable to achieve its target of registering 80% of the population as the exercise was widely hampered by logistical challenges.
The NIA has targeted 16.7 million Ghanaians to register for the Ghana Card.
The National Identification Authority (NIA) has released dates for the mop-up registration exercise in the Greater Accra Region, Bono, Ahafo and Bono East Regions.
For the Greater Accra Region, the registration will start from August 24th to September 8th, 2020.
The Bono Region and Bono East Region will start the exercise from August 27th to September 11th 2020.
For those in the Ahafo Region, the registration will begin from August 27th 2020 to September 11th, 2020.
In a statement by the NIA, it said, “the mop-up exercise targets Ghanaians aged 15 years and above who were unable to register during the mass registration exercise.â€
The NIA urged applicants to carry along to the registration centres the required documentation as well as their Ghana Post Digital address.
The Government, through the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), has begun processes to convert the National Identification numbers into Tax Identification numbers (TIN) to ensure easy payment of taxes.
The move will allow Ghanaians to use their Ghana Card numbers to register their businesses and expected to shore up government revenue.
This is expected to commence from January 2021, which would increase the number of taxpayers from less than three million to 16 million.
Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia announced this when he addressed the delegates of the National Youth Wing of the New Patriotic Party in Accra.
Dr Bawumia added that the Government had secured US$ 200-million World Bank support to implement the Jobs and Skills Development programme.
The programme is expected to be implemented from now till the next five years, to improve the entrepreneurial skills and productivity of the Ghanaian youth.
Some high profile personalities that graced the occasion included Madam Akosua Frema Osei Opare, Chief of Staff, Freddie Blay, and National Chairman of the NPP, Samuel Awuku, National Organiser of the NPP.
The forum coincided with the celebration of the International Youth Day held on August 12 every year, to recognise the contributions of the youth towards national development efforts and to create awareness about their challenges with the ultimate objective of finding solutions to them.
Vice President Bawumia enumerated some initiatives rolled out by the Akufo-Addo’s government to formalise the economy including National Digital Property Addressing System, issuance of the National Identification Cards (Ghana Card), Mobile Money Interoperability Payment System, measures underway to integrate the databases of the NIA and Births and Deaths Registry and other state agencies for easy accessibility of information.
The National Chairman of the NPP Mr Freddie Blay urged the party youth not be distracted by the ” “propaganda promises” by the NDC’s flag bearer but should remain focused and campaign vigorously across the nook and cranny of the country to retain the party in power.
“Leverage on your energies, strengths, and creativity by adopting innovative campaign strategies to win more votes for the Party”, he advised.
The Chief of Staff, Madam Akosua Osei Frema Opare, entreated the party youth to remain united and fight with a common front to retain power in the general election.
She acknowledged the hard work and enormous contributions of the NPP Youth Wing over the past years and urged them not to rest on their oars but rather work even harder in this year’s electioneering.
Sammy Awuku, NPP National Organiser urged the Youth Wing of the Party to widen the one million vote margin recorded in the 2016 Presidential Election.
To achieve that feat, he said, the Party must work hard to win more than 800,000 of the two million new voters captured in the just ended voter registration exercise.
Alhaji Abdul Aziz Haruna Futah, the NASARA Coordinator, enumerated several projects initiated in the Zongo Communities by the government to improve livelihoods of the Zongo Youth and urged the Zongo Communities to show their appreciation by voting massively for the NPP government in the December polls.
Mr Henry Nana Boakye, the NPP National Youth Organiser, acknowledged the efforts of the Party’s Leadership and Government’s contributions towards their activities and enhancing their capacity.
He, however, called for more support to enhance their work, especially by using social media platforms to reach out to the grassroots.
He gave the assurance that the Youth Wing of the Party would mobilize and leverage on innovative strategies to win more votes for the party.
The Electoral Commission has announced that a total of 16,963,306 voters have been registered in the mass voter registration exercise which ended last week.
These provisional figures were announced Wednesday by the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Mrs Jean Mensa at a press conference in Accra.
She explained that the figure is pending processes of de-duplication and adjudication.
More women registered
At the end of the registration exercise, a total 51.73 percent females were registered while males made up of 48.27 percent were registered.
The Upper East Region recorded the highest number of female registrants per population with 54.6 percent and the Western Region had the highest number of male registrants per population with 51.2 percent.
First time voters
At the end of the exercise, 762,944 18-year-olds had registered as first time voters.
This, the EC chairperson said represented 4.5 percent of the total register.
With respect to 19-year-olds, the EC said 612,104 registered to bring the total number of 18 and 19-year-olds to 1,375,048 persons representing 8.1 percent of the total register.
Documents presented
Out of the over 16 million registered, 60.09 percent presented the Ghana Card, 37.99 percent used the guarantor system and 1.92 percent registered with the Ghana passport.
The region with the highest persons who used the Ghana Card is the Oti Region, where 79.1 percent presented the Ghana Card followed by the Eastern Region where 78.5 percent presented the Ghana Card.
The Western North Region came third with 76.9 percent using the Ghana Card.
Guarantor system
With the guarantor system the Upper East Region recorded the highest number with 58.5 percent followed by Bono and Ahafo regions where 57.7 percent used the guarantor system.
Without finger prints
The number of applicants registered without finger prints and would be verified on election day using the facial recognition feature are 61,995 representing 0.37 percent of the total number of registered voters.
The Upper East Region had the highest number of this class of applicants with a total of 9244 found to have problematic finger prints.
The region with the lowest number of this problem was the Ahafo Region which had a total of 813 persons with problematic finger prints.
Challenge cases
The EC Chairperson said a total of 37,762 cases representing 0.20 percent of the total register were challenged with majority of them in the Oti Region followed by the Ahafo and Volta Regions.
Most of the challenge cases were from the border regions, she said.
Minors
The Electoral Commission noted that it has become aware that some minors have found their way unto the register and that it was confident that the challenge process which was still ongoing in various districts will help rid the register of these “illegal” persons.
Mrs Mensa said the number of persons registered as of the end of Day 36 were 16,932,492 and at the end of the two day mop-up exercise, 30,814 persons successfully registered to bring the total to 16,963,306.
The National Identification Authority (NIA) has begun a mob-up exercise in the Ashanti Region to enable qualified Ghanaians who were not able to register to do so to get their Ghana card.
The exercise which started in the Region on August 02, would end on August 16, this year.
Those who registered but were not able to receive their cards would also get the opportunity to collect their cards at the registration centres.
A visit by the Ghana News Agency to some of the registration centres in Kumasi indicated that a lot of people in the metropolis had still not registered and had formed long queues to register.
Mr. Kwadwo Adom, a supervisor at the Kronom registration centre, told the Ghana News Agency that the exercise had been going on smoothly and peacefully as was expected.
He said NIA had put in place stringent measures to ensure that all the COVID-19 protocols were observed in all the registration centres.
Mr Adom said citizens who were not able to register during the main exercise were now trooping into the centres to go through the process to receive their cards.
He said all the materials and other equipment needed for the registration exercise were in place and things were going on smoothly.
Mr Adom appealed to all those who were yet to register to take advantage of the opportunity to register to get their Ghana cards.
There was scuffle on Tuesday morning, at Elubo in the Jomoro Municipality of the Western Region as officials of the National Identification Authority (NIA) attempted to move their registration equipment from the area.
The residents, led by the Assemblymember of the area got into heated arguments which degenerated into a scuffle with officials of the NIA after the latter tried to transfer their kits.
The NIA is embarking on a mop-up registration exercise to register people who couldn’t register during the main exercise and the Authority assured the residents of Elubo to finish its work in the area on Thursday, July 23, 2020.
But before the communicated date, residents of Elubo got wind that the NIA officials would be removing their machines from Elubo to Bawia and Ellenda in the Jomoro Municipality on Monday evening, July 13, 2020.
Upon the hint, some residents vowed to stop the NIA to relocate their machines to different places.
On Tuesday morning, over 200 residents formed long queues early in the morning to register but the officials of NIA ignored them and started packing their machines in a pick-up vehicle.
This resulted in a scuffle between the residents and the NIA officials.
During the scuffle, the Assembly Member of Elubo West Electoral Area, Matthew Nana Frendo removed two machines from the pick-up vehicle to stop the officials from leaving the community.
But the police were quick to storm the scene and provided security for the NIA officials to remove all their machines from the community to Bawia and Ellenda.
The aggrieved residents lamented that the extension of the exercise at Elubo was to last for 21 days and hence did not understand the reason it had come to an abrupt end.
All efforts to speak to NIA proved futile as at the time of filing this report.
