Where is the instant ID cards promised in October 2014?

There are fears that the identity crisis facing the country due to the lack of a credible register of all Ghanaians to serve as the singular reference source is a recipe for chaos, especially election-related violence.

The admission by stakeholders that the Electoral Commission’s voters’ register is not credible due to the lack of a credible register of all Ghanaians has thrown the country into fear, as Ghanaians are apprehensive about how political parties will react to results of Election 2016 if the country’s differences are not resolved to the satisfaction of all.

The situation poses serious threats to peace because no one has the right to resort to emotive definition to tell who is a Ghanaian or not, as one can be identified as a Ghanaian through marriage, adoption or by birth, among others.

As a result, skin colour or accent or peculiar looks cannot be used as basis to deny a person's citizenship.

The increasing demand for identity verification in everyday life demands the immediate creation of a credible register of all Ghanaians to serve as the singular reference source for all government offices, programmes and the nation as a whole, to prevent people from providing false information.

Political parties have been accused of luring minors to register, as well as enticing dishonest parents to get their wards registered.

However, minors need some form of identification to assess services such as opening a bank account, registering mobile phone SIM cards and mobile money account withdrawals.

Since most minors do not have passports, drivers’ licence or national ID card, it makes sense for them to lie about their age and secure voters’ ID cards to access services.

So far, Ghana has spent about GHc21 million on the mass registration and card distribution exercises, and instead of getting it right, state institutions such as National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and the Passport Office have spent millions on their own biometric data capture, a complete duplication of duty and waste of money.

The National Identification Authority (NIA), which was set up in 2006, in October 2014 promised to start fresh registration of all Ghanaians under an “expanded registration project” which will issue instant ID cards.

One year on, NIA is yet to announce the date for the issuance of the instant cards with enhanced features to meet the needs of all relevant agencies.

Currently, only about 900,000 people, out of the 15 million whose data were collected in the last national registration exercise, have been supplied with their national ID cards.

Of the 15 million people whose data were collected, only 9 million were inputted into the database, with only 4.5 million being completed and 2.7 million national identity cards printed.

According to NIA, technological changes within the last four years necessitated that data collected in the last national registration exercise is updated, and the NIA in 2012 signed a public-private partnership (PPP) with Identity Management System (IMS) Limited for a pilot project to register eligible foreign nationals living in Ghana.

Based on the success of the pilot project, the NIA expanded the PPP to cover about 15 million Ghanaians.

In readiness to issue instant ID cards to Ghanaians, Intelligent Card Production Systems (ICPS), an ISO-certified full-service card manufacturing facility from card fabrication to fulfillment was expanded.

ICPS produced the instant cards under the Identification Management Systems (IMS) Limited for a pilot project to register eligible foreign nationals living in Ghana under a public-private partnership (PPP).

The new national ID card project “is an instant issuance system that eliminates the cost and challenges associated with card distribution.”

The system also takes care of the data needs of all stakeholders, including all 10 fingerprints, and would also capture the face and iris, as well as other biometric traits to enhance the security and integrity of the National Identification System.

Additionally, the Ghanacard has been designed to assist persons with visual challenges to be able to use it, using a tactile feature on the card.

The expanded scope, together with the specifications of the system, will enable the NIA to meet the biometric data requirements of all the user agencies.

ICPS boasts of ultra-modern factory and capacity, hosting the expanded AFIS and central site of NIA, which has been developed jointly with Dermalog of Germany, a leader in biometric, together with IDFG of Denmark.

The central site has the capacity to store 400 million fingerprints, 80 million faces and 80 million irises, and it is the most advanced biometric system in the country to date.

The system is designed to store all the current NIA data, enabling nationals to update their already collected data in the first registration or submit new data if not registered, to achieve NIA’s mandate to be the primary referential database connecting the alphanumeric data and biometrics of all nationals to a unique NIA pin number from cradle to grave, to be used by all stakeholders.

Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Hanna Tetteh, Minister of State in charge of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Dr Rashid Pelpuo, as well as Trade and Industry Minister Dr Ekwow Spio Garbrah have all visited ICPS factory and lauded the efforts of the company.