Over 15.7 million Ghanaians current have received their Ghana cards, the Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Prof. Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah, has disclosed.
Speaking to Bernard Koku Avle on the Citi Breakfast Show on Thursday, July 21, 2022, Prof. Attafuah said data available to him reveals that 16,969,034 persons have registered for the Ghana Card, with about 16,535,623 cards printed as of today.
Prof. Attafuah further told Bernard Avle that about 15,702,719 cards have been issued whereas some 808,493 cards have been printed but not issued.
He gave multiple reasons why some people who have registered have not been issued with their cards.
“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.”
“For such people, until the outstanding issues are rectified, they can’t receive their cards,” he added.
The roll-out of the Ghana Card sparked conversations after the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, said the card has fully met the requirements for an E-passport, despite a rejection by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
Government had said the Ghana Card has been certified by ICAO, and thus qualifies to be used as an identity card for international travel in place of a passport.
