Nearly 17 million people have so far been enrolled onto the National Identification System (NIS), the National Identification Authority (NIA) has disclosed.
Data from the NIAshowed that as of Tuesday, 16,916,406 people across the country had been enrolled, out of which 16,770,221 cards had been printed by the Authority.
However, the Acting Head of Corporate Affairs of the Authority, Dr Abudu Abdul-Ganiyu, said 15,622, 107 cards have been issued to their respective owners with 1,148,114 yet to be issued.
He explained that some of the cards had not been issued because the cards had been taken to registration points of applicants, but due to many reasons including relocation, the cards had not been issued.
“People who registered at particular places but have relocated, meanwhile the cards must be taken to the places where the registration took place,” he told the Ghanaian Times in an interview yesterday.
Dr Abdul-Ganiyu, therefore, advised applicants who had not received their identification cards to go to their respective district offices where they registered to collect them.
Additionally, he said the Authority was considering embarking on a card distribution drive where the cards would be sent to the particular centres and communities for issuance.
The NIA, in May 2017, started the NIS revamping project after some unsuccessful attempts in the past to register all Ghanaians and issue national cards to them.
The project, guided by the National Identity Register (Amendment) Act, 2017 (Act 950), aimed to compile a national database of Ghanaians in the country and abroad as well as legal and permanent non-Ghanaian nationals.
Demand for the card has increased over the last few months due to the linkage of the cardto the Tax Identification Number (TIN), Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) numbers; Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) as well as banking systems.
BY JONATHAN DONKOR
