According to the Minister, this initiative aims to engage every citizen in revitalizing the local economy.

Dr. Amin Adam, who also serves as the Member of Parliament for Karaga, revealed that approximately GH₵135 million has been invested in the national identification program since January 2024.

He believes this investment is a crucial component of the government’s strategy to enhance economic participation and efficiency.

During his presentation of the 2024 Mid-Year Budget Review in Parliament on Tuesday, July 23, Dr. Amin Adam emphasized the government’s commitment to revitalizing the economy for the benefit of all Ghanaians and highlighted the importance of digitalization in achieving this goal.

The Minister assured that, the government remains focused on maintaining the progress made and is determined to sustain the gains achieved in economic recovery and development.

“Mr Speaker, to advance our digitalisation drive and expand our unique identification system, we have invested about 135 million Ghana Cedis in the National Identification Programme since January 2024.”

“Mr. Speaker, this significant progress has been underpinned by an environment of enhanced and inclusive engagements with key stakeholders. These engagements have provided useful feedback, improved understanding and bolstered cooperation.”

“Mr. Speaker, the stabilisation is real. We are determined to stay the course of our fiscal consolidation programme. Increased attention will continue to be given to prudent management of approved expenditures and improved revenue mobilisation,” he stated.

ALSO READ:

Frank Annor Dompreh convicted for contempt, fined GH¢7,200

14-year-old convict spends 5 extra months in jail despite being discharged…

US Secret Service director resigns after Trump rally shooting

The commission in a statement Thursday said the move is to enable it mobilise and retool its district Voter Management system (VMS).

“The Electoral Commission announces, with immediate effect, the temporary nationwide suspension of the issuance of replacement voter ID card at its district offices. This is to enable the Commission to mobilise and retool its district Voter Management System (VMS), as part of its preparatory activities toward its scheduled 2018 online Limited Voters Registration Exercise.

ALSO: NPP living in ‘fear’ after Mahama’s declaration – Kofi Adams

“A new date for the resumption of the ID card replacement services will be announced in due course. Any inconvenience caused by this notice is very much regretted,” a statement signed by the Public relations manager of the Commissioner Eric Dzakpasu noted.

Meanwhile, the Electoral Commission has noted that the absence of the biggest opposition party from Wednesday’s Inter-party Advisory Committee meeting organised by the Commission took shine out of the programme.

The NDC declined to attend the meeting which was chaired by the Deputy Chairperson of the Election Management Body, Samuel Tettey citing late invitation.

READ: Kidnapped girl found mute utters first words after 6 days; sparks jubilation

According to the NDC, it received the invitation to the meeting at 12:15 for a meeting which was to start at 1:00 pm.

A letter inviting the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) including the largest opposition party, the NDC read in parts: “On behalf of the Electoral Commission of Ghana, I am pleased to invite you to Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting on Wednesday 22nd August 2018. The time is 1:00 pm. The venue is the IPAC room of the Electoral Commission.”

Consequently, many of those who visit the EC’s office located in the Urban Council building on Thursday at Dormaa-Ahenkro in the Brong-Ahafo Region, with various concerns become disappointed due to the inability of the Commission to meet their request.

The situation has affected the Commission’s daily administrative duties and has in turn led to the non-payment of the GHC 5, 400.00 electricity bill by the Dormaa Municipal Assembly, owners of the building.

The bills have accrued since January 2015 to April 2017 and many residents of Dormaa-Ahenkro with complaints of missing voter ID cards have become worried because they need the cards for other purposes.

Mr Kyere Ofori and Ms Eunice Ataah, residents of the municipality, told the Ghana News Agency that they needed the ID cards replacement for confirmation of their identities to receive remittance from abroad and for the opening of bank accounts respectively.

Mr Christian Offeh Boafo, the Dormaa Municipal Electoral Officer, said he has on several occasions contacted the authorities of the Municipal Assembly about the matter but it is yet to be resolved.

According to Prof. Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah, Executive Secretary of the NIA, persons living in areas with good internet coverage will get their cards within 10 minutes of their filling the appropriate forms, while those with unreliable or non-existent coverage will have the printing of theirs deferred for a short period.

“You can expect to see a card on the 15th of September, 2017, when we roll out,” Prof Attafuah assured at a media interaction on Monday June 12, 2017. “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.”

It would be recalled that the Vice President, at a meeting with key stakeholders in late January, announced government’s decision to implement three key programmes required to formalise the Ghanaian economy and set an end of year timeline for their implementation.
They are a National Identification System, a Digital Addressing System and Interoperability between the telcos, banks and any other payment systems.

Four committees set up to analyse the various processes required to set up a national ID system have since submitted their report, and the President, Nana Addo Dankwa 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 National Identity System (NIS) project not later than 15th September, 2017”.

The NIA has accepted the challenge and is poised to meet the deadline, although the time it takes to issue a card will be determined by a number of factors, including internet connectivity, Prof Attafuah pointed out.

“There may be areas in this country where internet connectivity may be a challenge. In such locations, there would be deferred printing – it may be a day, it may be a couple of days. In such circumstances deferred printing may be inevitable.

“So there are options: people will get the cards on the 15th. Those who are able to register on the 15th and from that day onwards anyone registering can expect to get the card instantly, because that is what we are aiming at.

“I must qualify that to say in those rare circumstances where sometimes as in my village, there may not be internet connection, that there may be a delay by a day or two, or just a few hours. Sometimes internet is not the most stable.”

The NIA, Prof Attafuah said, is working with key stakeholders like the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) to identify areas with low or non-existent internet availability to plan appropriately for the capturing of data and issuance of cards for residents in those communities.

“We’re working with NITA and the technical committee to map out this country and colour code in terms of availability of data connectivity so that before we roll out we know where connectivity may be a problem and then to develop auxiliary measures to address those deficits in connectivity.”

It follows a Starr News exposé about the activities of the syndicate which operates at Abeka Lapaz in Accra under the guise of providing printing and photocopying services.

The production of the fake cards secretly takes place in the inner chamber of the Palnamat Grafiks Company.

last week, a staff of Proton Security Services Limited, whose name was given as Belinda obtained one of the fake voters ID cards from the syndicate for fifty Cedis only for her employers to detect it was fake when it submitted for the payment of her salary.

Following this revelation, Peter Owusu and Belinda’s employees launched investigations into the activities and got another employee to place a request for ID card with a wrong name and a wrong date of birth but succeeded in getting the fake card because he could afford the GHC30 negotiated.

A complaint was then filed with the Police for the arrest of members of the syndicate.

Investigations revealed that patrons of their services include internet fraudsters who liaise with some bankers to obtain confidential information on money transfers and obtain cards bearing the name of the supposed receivers.

This, he said, would enable government to manage the economy properly while instilling social discipline in the country.

Dr Bawumia announced this when he spoke on behalf of the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo at the two-day National Policy Summit in Accra yesterday.

He indicated that government would also introduce a National Digital Address System which would allow Ghana to leapfrog into a digital mapping address system rather than the current street naming system.

According to him, work has already started on the National Digital Address System, with the hope that by July this year, it would be ready.

This is expected to be ready before the release of the National ID cards.

The rationale, according to the Vice President was that “when you go to register for your National ID, you will also have your address so that we are able to capture the two in the database.”

He believes “this will make sure that every place that we have in Ghana here has a unique GPS code, postcode and we can identify uniquely wherever to deliver goods or services to those addresses.”

The Vice President also talked about what has come to be known and accepted as inter-operability.

That, he said would enable companies and organizations especially in the financial sector, such as banks and telecommunications companies to easily do business transaction among themselves with ease.

Government hopes to achieve that too by the end of this year.

“We believe that when that is done, it will represent really a major transformation of the economy”, Dr Bawumia noted.

For him, these are the soft pieces of infrastructure which he prefers to call ‘unwritten rules of the game’ that would change the economy dramatically.

He, however, expressed concern about the fact that the country has lots of assets but yet was getting little out of these assets.

In that regard, he said “we are going to form the Ghana Assets Management Corporation that will put together all the assets of the country.”

It would be the mandate of the body to ensure the management and maintenance of these assets.

According to the report, only 4.5million resident Ghanaians, representing 17percent of the population, have National IDs.

“Presently, the Authority is managing the biometric data of 4.5million resident Ghanaians and 90,000 legally resident foreign nationals.” the report states.

The report further indicates that notwithstanding the challenges, the authority in the year 2016, was able to register 2,775 resident Ghanaians and issued 3,658 National Identity Cards to registered resident Ghanaians.

It was also able to register and issue identity cards to 14,067 legally resident foreign nationals.

For the performance of its activities for year 2017, the NIA has been allocated Gh?112m, comprising compensation of Gh?5m, Gh?10m for Goods and Services and an IGF component of Gh?7m.

This year, according to the report, the NIA intends to revamp the National Identification System(NIS) in line with its statutory mandate by issuing National Identity Cards to citizens and generally ensure the effective implementation of the NIS.

The Authority intends to vigorously enforce the use of the non-citizen Ghana Card by eligible foreign nationals.

The Committee also noted that other institutions are also holding separate biometric data of segments of the population, and it is important to have a one-stop shop for personal biometric data to avoid duplication and improve the credibility of such data.

“In this regard, the NIA plans to harmonise the regulatory framework, strengthen institutional co-ordination and integrate other public biometric databases into the National Identity Register”.

The NIA has the mandate to adopt cutting edge technology to provide client-based identification services for socio-economic development, good governance, safety and security for all citizens and eligible foreign nationals resident in Ghana.

Government has reportedly begun the process of implementing a comprehensive national identification project, in fulfillment of a long-held NPP campaign pledge to build a database of Ghanaians and other nationals resident in Ghana.

The National Identification project is expected to be completed within the first year of the NPP administration, in fulfillment of a manifesto pledge to complete the registration of all residents in Ghana under the National Identification Scheme.

It is expected to help establish an integrated Data Warehouse of databases from key public institutions, using the National Identification System as the unique identifier for data items, and automating the processes involved in accessing public services at both national and local government offices.

The NPP government is convinced the National ID scheme would help formalise the economy through the establishment of a national database, using the National Identification System as the primary identifier, with linkages to the databases of institutions such as the Police, National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Passport Office, Immigration, Courts, Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA).