NIA New Registration is to create, loot and share - IMANI Boss

Franklin Cudjoe, Founding President and Chief Executive Officer of IMANI Center for Policy and Education has described as unfair a decision by the National Identification Authority (NIA) to embark on a new registration exercise.

The NIA in an interview granted to PEACE FM on Thursday, indicated that it has contracted a $115 million loan facility from the Exim Bank to undertake a fresh registration exercise of all Ghanaians under an “expanded registration project.”

The decision by the governing board of the NIA comes six years after the authority began a mass registration exercise, completing it in seven regions and parts of the three northern regions; and card distribution exercises in parts of the Greater Accra Region.

So far, Ghana has spent about Ghc21,621,075 on the mass registration and card distribution exercises.

Speaking in an interview on Citi Eyewitness news, the IMANI boss said even though he is not surprised of the decision of the NIA, it is unfair for them to waste that amount and then request that the taxpayer give them another to organize a new registration.

He alluded that the ‘expanded registration project’ is just another scheme to create, loot and share.

“I am not surprised at all…I am even surprised that Ghanaians are surprise because we raised these issues about a year ago…Why are we dissipating resources in this way…I am worried that we seem to be cooking up scams on a daily basis…this is not fair,” he noted.