By Papisdaff Abdullah
After several postponements and missed deadlines, Ghana’s National Identity card exercise has finally taken off with over 500 Ghanaians obtaining their Ghana Card from the countries National Identification Authority, (NIA).
The Executive Director of the NIA, Professor Ken Agyemang Attafuah said the pilot phase of the issuance of the new national ID card is going on smoothly since it started at the seat of the Presidency, Jubilee House.
Over 100 Ghanaians working at the Jubilee House have secured their cards after they were taken through the process by officials of the NIA.
Addressing the media after taking the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, through the process, Prof. Attafuah said over 500 new digital Ghana cards have been issued while several others are still going through the procedure to have their cards.
In a conversation with Prof. Attafuah, President Akufo-Addo said Ghanaians are relieved to know that the process has finally started.
The exercise which was scheduled to take off last week Monday failed to commence for the third time after officials of NIA failed to show up.
The NIA later blamed a “technical hitch” for their failure to get people registered for the new Ghana card.
The Ghana Card will replace the sectoral identity cards in circulation and become the only card to be used in transactions where identification is required as provided by law.
Among other things, it will enable other stakeholders to run their applications on the national identity card.
The roll-out strategy, according to the NIA would be published in detail for everyone to have the opportunity to see where he or she would have to register.
But in the meantime, the NIA has explained that it was undertaking the exercise on regional basis and that after the registration of staff at the Presidency, Parliament, Judicial Service and the security agencies, it would move into the community starting with Greater Accra where it will use three months for the exercise.
