A total of 236,144 foreigners from 177 counties living legally and permanently in Ghana have so far been registered onto the National Identification System (NIS), Professor Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah, Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA) has disclosed.
He said that enrolment onto the register keeps increasing, adding that the government had injected colossal resources to make the NIA project work.
Professor Attafuah who was speaking at the 20th anniversary celebration of Tertiary Educational Students Confederation (TESCON) at the Ho Technical University last Tuesday said that, Ghana had developed one of the most sophisticated ID cards on earth for all transactions to transform the country into an inclusive smart nation.
“The Ghana Card has been designed to be used for all transactions which will advance economic, social and political purposes,” he affirmed.
He explained that that currently, banks refused to accept the Ghana Card because the verification platforms had not been launched, hence encrypted data on the Ghana Card could not be accessed and verified.
However, Professor Attafuah gave the assurance the development of the verification platforms for the card would be completed by March 31, this year.
“The verification platform is to be used to identify citizens and non-citizens based on the Ghana Card personal identification number and a unique code,” he added.
The Executive Secretary of the NIA stated that the security features and the digital signature of the Ghana Card would enable the card to be used for various transactions, including the application for a passport, driver’s licence, opening of a bank account, payment of taxes and consumer credits, among others.
He said that the card transcended identification as it was embossed with 148K chip with 14 applets which could be used by a user agency to store data and transact business.
Furthermore, Professor Attafuah said that the card, embossed with a live ECOWAS passport, was also equipped with tactile features for the blind and also designed to be used for online and offline biometric verification transaction.
According to Professor Attafuah, the NIA was a 15-year Public Private Partnership (PPP) between the NIA and Identity Management Systems (IMS) II Limited.
“The NIA is contributing USD124 million and the IMS is contributing USD169 in the first year alone,” he revealed.
FROM ALBERTO MARIO NORETTI, HO
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