The National Identification Authority (NIA) has registered 25,728 residents of La Nkwatanang-Madina Municipality of the Greater Accra Region in four days.
This number is almost double the figure registered in Adentan Municipality in the first week of the exercise.
Exercise ends December 22
The exercise at La Nkwatanang-Madina Municipality started from Monday, December 3, 2018, and is scheduled to end on Saturday, December 22, 2018.
60 Centres in use
Registration is taking place at 60 centres in the municipality.
The exercise at La Nkwatanang-Madina Municipality is devoid of the initial niggles that occurred during the registration process at Adentan Municipality.
This time around, when The Finder went around selected registration centres, long queues were absent. Also absent were the disgruntled and frustrated registrants.
At the La Nkwatanang-Madina Police Station registration centre, registrants told The Finder that they had only been waiting for about an hour.
They praised the NIA for the speed with which the process was moving.
The Finder noted at the aforementioned centre that there were two queues for people who had come to register – with one catering for people who had come along with identification documents and one for those who had come with guarantors.
A resident who had come to register for her Ghanacard, Aisahatu Aziz, told The Finder that she was very satisfied with the pace of the process.
She said that she had to dash back home, and upon her return, those she had been queuing with had finished with their registration.
She was also very impressed with the level of publicity the process had received prior to its start in the municipality. She told The Finder that in her reckoning, “this is an okay process”.
The tale was not much different at the La Nkwatanang-Madina Municipal Assembly registration centre, where registrants were seen sitting patiently while waiting to be registered.
Again, registrants were happy with the organisation, saying that by the time they arrived early yesterday morning to be registered, the venue had been prepared, with canopies and chairs all set.
At the Faith Community Baptist Senior High School, The Finder spotted a list of the names of people whose cards were ready posted on the wall.
Upon enquiry, it came to light that those were names of people who had finished the registration earlier but had been told to return at a later date for their cards.
The Finder spotted people perusing this list to see if their cards were ready for collection.
Madam Mavis Badu, who had come to collect her card, told The Finder in an interview that, “I came to register last week. I was actually told to return the next day for my card but was unable to, so I came today, and within a few minutes had [sic] got my hands on my card.”
Registrants who had finished giving their data were seen leaving with receipt-like slips which they would have to submit at a later date to collect their cards.
Registration officials declined to talk to The Finder, saying that they were too swamped with work to talk.
The rollout of the Ghanacard is a collaboration between the NIA and Identity Management Systems (IMS), a subsidiary of Margins Group, an indigenous identity, security and transaction solutions provider.
Single ID card
The card would replace the sectorial identity cards in circulation and shall be the only card to be used in transactions where identification is required as provided by law.
For every mobile registration work station, there would be interviewer, an assistant to the interviewer, mobile registration work station operator, and card verification officer.
Registration process
Persons with the right documents who provide right answers to questions are issued the instant ECOWAS Identity Card in approximately 30 minutes.
Documents required for registration
Anyone who wants to register has a duty to provide basic information, and digital address code is one of them.
The primary documents required are a birth certificate or a valid passport. However, existing Ghana Card holders can also use it in place of birth certificate or a valid passport.
Vouching for people
This vouching process is made on oath before a Commissioner of Oath.
When a citizen has neither of these documents, the person can be vouched for by one relative who has been registered and issued with the card or by two people who are not relatives but who know the person and have been registered and issued ID cards.
Non-compulsory documents ID cards
Aside the compulsory documents, which can be either a birth certificate or passport, registrants who have all or some of the following documents – driver’s licence, Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) card, National Health Insurance (NHIS) card, and Tax Identification Number (TIN) number – are required to carry them along.
NIA will make an electronic copy and return them to the owner and NIA would use the electronic versions as part of the person’s identity records purposes of data integration and harmonisation.
Tactile feature
The new Ghanacard has been designed to assist compatriots with visual challenges to be able to use it, using a tactile feature on the card.
ID Card can be used as passport across ECOWAS
Another new feature of the card is that it has the logos of the passport of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on it, which allows for it to be used in place of a passport across ECOWAS member countries.
ID card to be linked to one’s bank account
Apart from it being a national identification card, it would also be linked to one’s bank account, to enhance modern payment systems.
ID card to last 10 years
The new ID card is expected to have a lifespan of 10 years after which it will be renewable at a fee to be determined by the authority.
From Greater-Accra, the exercise would move to the Volta, Northern, Upper East, Upper West, Brong Ahafo, Western, Ashanti, Eastern, Western and Central regions in that order.
Source: The Finder
