Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the National Identification Authority (NIA) will issue the first of the proposed Ghana National Identity Card on September 15, 2017.
According to Prof. Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah, Executive Secretary of the NIA, persons living in areas with good internet coverage will get their cards within 10 minutes of their filling the appropriate forms, while those with unreliable or non-existent coverage will have the printing of theirs deferred for a short period.
“You can expect to see a card on the 15th of September, 2017, when we roll out” Prof Attafuah assured at a media interaction on Monday June 12, 2017.
“We want to implement an instant card issuance system. You register with us and within 10 minutes maximum you get the card and walk away.”
It would be recalled that the Vice President, at a meeting with key stakeholders in late January, announced government’s decision to implement three key programmes required to formalise the Ghanaian economy and set an end of year timeline for their implementation.
They are a National Identification System, a Digital Addressing System and Interoperability between the telcos, banks and any other payment systems.
Four committees set up to analyse the various processes required to set up a national ID system have since submitted their report, and the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has directed the NIA to immediately engage with Identity Management Systems (IMS) Limited, a private identity management company to “agree on the modalities to ensure the efficient roll-out of the National Identity System (NIS) project not later than 15th September, 2017.”
The NIA has accepted the challenge and is poised to meet the deadline, although the time it takes to issue a card will be determined by a number of factors, including internet connectivity, Prof Attafuah pointed out.
“There may be areas in this country where internet connectivity may be a challenge. In such locations, there would be deferred printing – it may be a day, it may be a couple of days. In such circumstances deferred printing may be inevitable.
“So there are options: people will get the cards on the 15th. Those who are able to register on the 15th and from that day onwards anyone registering can expect to get the card instantly, because that is what we are aiming at.
“I must qualify that to say in those rare circumstances where sometimes as in my village, there may not be internet connection, that there may be a delay by a day or two, or just a few hours. Sometimes internet is not the most stable.”
The NIA, Prof Attafuah said, is working with key stakeholders like the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) to identify areas with low or non-existent internet availability to plan appropriately for the capturing of data and issuance of cards for residents in those communities.
“We’re working with NITA and the technical committee to map out this country and colour code in terms of availability of data connectivity so that before we roll out we know where connectivity may be a problem and then to develop auxiliary measures to address those deficits in connectivity.”
Source: Peacefmonline.com
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HOw can you issue id card within 10 minutes? this is funny. what modaliteisd have u put in place to make sure the the person is ghanaian? this is a joke
How can you GUARANTEE that foreigners will not fraudulently acquire Ghanaian ID cards?????
PROF.THE IDEA OF THE NIS CARD IS VERY LAUDABLE FOR MY COUNTRY GHANA BUT BECAUSE OF THE INTERNET CONNECTIVITY CHALLENGES; I WISH WE UNDERTAKE THIS PROGRAMME IN THE DRY SEASON BUT NOT THE RAINING SEASON AND ALSO TO TALK TO THESE TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRIES FOR MORE EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE SERVICES DURING THOSE PERIODS. THERE ARE A LOT OF FOREIGN NATIONALS IN GHANA AND THIS WILL BE TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION BECAUSE NDC PARTY IS FOUND OF USING FOREIGN NATIONALS DURING GENERAL ELECTIONS IN GHANA. ESPECIALLY TOGOLASE, NIGERIANS, BENINOIANS, MALIANS, IVORIANS AND MANY MORE. I REST MY CASE, GHANA BLESS GHANA MY MOTHER LAND.I STAND FOR CORRECTIONS.
I thought we were told that this new ID will be the unified card that includes Drivers, NHIS, SSNIT and Voter? I here DVLA are also rolling out their own by July 18th. We need to merge these to save the nation millions of cedis.
Black man talk too much. This is a step in the right direction if even there are flaws. We need it. All our neighboring countries have it. Well done Nana/Bawumia.
let's take our time to do it well else many foreigners will get some.
Eiiiiii some Ghanaians love talking ooo. So you think the NIA have not constituted sub technical committees to consider all these basic concerns you are raising. even a class one child would consider these challenges before implementing such a laudable idea. It is this same "we are not ready yet" attitude that prevented the NDC from issuing just one card after the ones issued during Kuffour's administration. We need to start from somewhere. This is long overdue.
This is very good but what happen to the first national id card that was issue by the NDC govement?
Prof, you cited your village as an example when talking about internet connectivity. I will also use my village to point out this and very important fact. In my village most of the people don't have birth certificates, very little of us have passports (less than 1%) and they don't even know what is a computer. How do we get these people register on line and to get their cards in a day or two or even a month. Please look beyond literates and target the illiterates as well. Your concept can target up to 40%.
My brother, you are right but you must also know that foreigner would also be registered if they have the required document as foreigners and not Ghanaians. If anyone fake he or her identity one day the law would catch such persons and the would be hot. I leave in a country where everyone has an id both the foreigners and the local and your nationality is written on the card. Then also I do not think iff someone does not have a passport of birth certificate or anything to prove his or her eligibility would be allowed to register.