PNational Identification Authority (NIA) will begin mass registration exercise in the Ashanti Region from Wednesday, December 11, 2019 and end on Wednesday, January 8, 2020, for the issuance of the Ghana Card.
The exercise starts from 7:00am to 5:00pm, and would be conducted at 833 NIA operational registration centres across 47 districts in the region, with 15,000 NIA officials to speed up the exercise.
An estimated figure of over 2.8 million people in the Ashanti Region, are expected to be registered.
So far, the exercise has been conducted in 11 regions throughout the country out of which the NIA has registered a total of 4,857,845 Ghanaians, printed a total of 4,291,840 cards and issued 2,695,478 Ghana Cards.
Executive Secretary of the NIA, Professor Kenneth Attafuah, announced this at a press briefing in Kumasi, on Monday.
He said the Ashanti Region was expected to record the largest number to be registered, and believed that the exercise would be successful as the Authority now has the full complement of its equipment.
Prof. Attafuah said items required for the registration were birth certificate or Ghanaian passport and digital address, or any other form of identification such as the Social Security and National Insurance Trust card, driver’s license, tax identification number and National Health Insurance card.
He, however, explained that with the exception of the digital address and the birth certificate or passport, the other identifications were not mandatory for one to be registered.
Prof. Attafuah said those without passport or a birth certificate could get a family member who had been registered and issued with the Ghana card to vouch for them, but warned that those who intend to use this system and vouch for people they had no relations with to make money would be dealt with by the law.
And, those who were unable to get family members to vouch for them, would need to find two people who have already registered and who could vouch for their nationality to enable them to register, he said.
Prof. Attafuah cautioned that paying or giving money to any official before, during or after the registration process would be considered as a bribe and a criminal offense, “because the exercise is free of charge”.
On the significant features of the Ghana Card, he said “it has been embedded with National Health Insurance Scheme, driver’s license, passport and other state issued IDs.
Prof. Attafuah explained that even though foreigners would also be registered, the mass registration exercise was open to only Ghanaians aged 15 years and above, adding that foreigners, who were legally or permanently resident in Ghana, were required by the law to register with the NIA, whilst those in the Diaspora would be registered under a different exercise.
FROM KINGSLEY E.HOPE, KUMASI
