The National Identification Authority (NIA) has withheld over 110,000 Ghana Cards due to issues of double registration.
Despite successfully issuing over 18 million cards to Ghanaians, around 150,000 cards are still pending printing.
Professor Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah, the Executive Secretary of the NIA, appearing before Parliament’s Government Assurance Committee, revealed that investigations into these multiple registration cases are underway.
He assured that the NIA is investigating the 110,936 cases where individuals attempted multiple registrations.
Professor Attafuah said as of August 20, 2024, a total of 559,457 cards have not been issued, with 150,896 cards cleared and ready for printing.
The NIA was established by the National Identification Authority Act, 2006 (Act 707).
Its mandate is to create, maintain, provide and promote the use of national identity cards to advance economic, political and social activities in Ghana.
To execute its mandate, NIA collects personal data of Ghanaians living in Ghana and abroad and all permanently resident foreign nationals and issues them with Ghana cards.
As part of its mandate, the NIA also ensures the accuracy, integrity, confidentiality and security of personal data it collects and makes personal data in its custody available to persons or institutions authorised by law to access the data.
Professor Attafuah also revealed that it has extended its registration services to Ghanaians living abroad.
The authority, in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, is set to pilot the overseas registration program in Ottawa, Canada.
“We chose Canada for a strategic reason. We wanted a place where we would test the robustness, the acuteness of the technical system that we’ve designed in partnership with our technical partners.
“We wanted a place where the majority of the people who will come before us seeking to register will be persons possessing the two fundamental documents, birth certificate or a passport,” he added.