NIA Completes registration exercise; says Ghana Card is ready for business transaction
Jonas Danquah 
The National Identification Authority (NIA) has completed its nationwide mass registration and the mop-up exercises
The NIA issued 13,848,697 cards to Ghanaians, home and abroad, as well as foreign nationals with residence permits in Ghana.
The exercise which began in the Greater Accra Region on April 29, 2019, saw a total enrolment of 15,549,242, out of which 14,689,672 cards were printed.
However, the number of cards that have been printed but not issued and print backlog amount to 840,974 and 859,570, respectively.
The total enrolment is made up of 8,268,429 females and 7,280,813 males.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Identification Authority (NIA) Professor Ken Attafuah said from October 1, 2020, the Ghana Card can be used to access services and other transactions in the country.
Prof Attafuah says they are still in talks with some entities to come on board and fully accept the new card which he describes as a 'must-have".
"In the first week of October the technical system will be ready and the service can now happen. We are having conversations with Bank of Ghana and the Ministry of Communications to ensure the players in the telco industry all come on board".
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The NIA is done with the registration exercise but says they will soon establish permanent regional, municipal, and district offices to allow persons who could not register during the mop-up exercise to do so.
Prof. Attafuah who was speaking during an interview with Accra-based Joy FM, said that “officials at the offices will also move into the communities to register people while maintaining a presence at the offices so people can walk in and register.
“We are registering everyone, from zero to infinity. We will be working with the birth and death registry so that when the children turn 18 we would know automatically. This will also allow 'football age' to be a thing of the past", he said.
Prof. Attafuah described the Ghana Card as a must-have card, noting that “One would be excluding himself socially, economically and politically without the card."
