The National Identification Authority (NIA) has confirmed that the proposed instant National Identity Cards will be ready for issuance, starting from September 15 this year.
According to the Executive Secretary of the NIA, Prof. Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah, persons living in areas with good internet coverage will get their cards within 10 minutes of their filing the appropriate forms.
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. Prof Attafuah said at a media interaction on Monday June 12, 2017.
He says also that those with unreliable or non-existent coverage will have the printing of theirs deferred for a short period.
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As a matter of fact, four committees set up to analyse the various processes required to set up a national ID system, have since submitted their report. President Nana 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 NIS project not later than 15th September 2017.
The NIA has accepted the challenge and has also promised to meet the deadline, although the time it takes to issue a card will be determined by a number of factors, including internet connectivity. According to the Executive Secretary of the NIA, the first phase of producing the national identity cards will kickstart in mid-September.
Ghana’s Instant National ID is in fulfilment of the promise made by the New Patriotic Party following its 2016 election victory. The NPP promised to complete the National Identification system that was commenced by the erstwhile Kufuor administration within its first year in office.
It would be recalled that the Vice President, at a meeting with key stakeholders in late January, revealed government’s plans to set up a National Identification System.
This was part of the three key programmes required to formalise the Ghanaian economy and set an end of year timeline for their implementation. The other two are Digital Addressing System and Interoperability between the telcos, banks and any other payment systems -all aimed at revamping the economy.
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