Prof. Kenneth Attafuah, NIA Executive Secretary
The Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Prof. Kenneth Attafuah, has denied claims that the Authority is intentionally frustrating some communities in registering and accessing their Ghana Cards.
Earlier reports had suggested that some communities, including Adaklu in the Volta Region, were being frustrated in their attempt to register and access the national ID cards.
Reacting to the development on Asaase Radio yesterday, Prof Attafuah said: “We have never and will never disadvantage people by not providing them with the Ghana Card, which is something they have a right to.”
He added: “It is an unfortunate implication for somebody to purport that the NIA is doing something to frustrate a specific community; nobody stands to gain if our citizens don’t get the cards.
“It is clear that without the Ghana Card, our revenue mobilisation will be hamstrung. So, why then would we want to disadvantage a specific people when the nation will suffer in turn?” Professor Attafuah asked.
Over 16.9 million registered
Meanwhile, over 16.9 million Ghanaians have so far been registered for the Ghana Card, as at 13 July 2022, he said.
Prof Attafuah is unhappy some persons have resorted to obtaining police statement to get their cards reprinted although they have already been registered.
“We have, as at 13 July, registered 16,936,934 Ghanaians [16 years and above] onto the national identity register. We have printed the cards of 16,743,832 Ghanaians,” the NIA Executive Secretary said.
He added: “We have issued 16,674,131. As at 13 July, we had uncollected cards of 895,140. It is important to contrast this with the situation before February 2017, where only 4,554,520 Ghanaians had been registered between 2008 July and February 2017.”
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