NIA urged to do another mass registration for Ghana card

Kwame Agbodza

Mr Kwame Agbodza, Member of Parliament for Adaklu Monday urged the National Identification Authority (NIA) to as a matter of urgency consider another mass registration in the country.

He said this would enable as many people as possible who were not able to register and were finding it difficult to travel from the remotest areas to the district offices to register.

Mr Agbodza made the suggestion when he paid a familiarization visit to the Adaklu district office of the NIA at Adaklu Waya.

His reports reaching him indicated that only about two thousand people had received their cards in the district out of over 25,000 people who were 15 years and above.

“This creates the impression that we are not yet there, but we are putting a lot of things on the Ghana card, thereby, denying a lot of people from accessing government services and also their accounts at the banks,” he said.

Mr Agbodza wondered how many people could pay GH¢250 for the premium service of NIA to enable them to acquire the cards.

He intimated that registering people was not the same as people receiving their cards and said though the NIA claimed to have registered over 20,000 people in the district only few people actually had their cards.

“Some people want to use the power they have to suppress majority of us, though Ghana is a peaceful country we will fiercely resist such oppressive moves to the hilt,” he noted with concern.

He said the data being held by NIA was so important and crucial, so, they needed a very conducive and convenient office space to operate.

Mr Agbodza while congratulating the staff for their efforts and agreeing to work in that office environment, urged them to use the two FM stations in the district to educate the people on the acquisition of the card.

Mr Dennis Okyere Antwi, Adaklu District Head of NIA said double registration was a challenge in the district, which he described as a “a very complex and challenging district.”

He said this could be due to ignorance and frustration and many people wanted to use the card to change their identities adding that it became a complex issue for the staff and the people.

Mr Okyere Antwi said because of connectivity challenge, it sometimes took them eight minutes to print a card instead of two and half minutes.

He confirmed that the data of most people were not captured during the mass registration so they needed to be re-registered before they could have their cards.

Mr Okyere Antwi said they had registered 1,959 people since the office was opened and that they had 622 unclaimed cards.

He said office accommodation was another challenge saying, “some of our equipment are still in their boxes due to non-availability of space,” but added that the District Chief Executive had promised to provide them with a more spacious one in an office complex being put up by the Assembly.

Source: GNA

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