Paying a bribe to acquire the Ghana Card and a seeming validation of citizenship is probably as poetic as it gets. The National Identification Authority (NIA) registration for the Ghana Card has been (some would say unsurprisingly) marred by allegations of extortion and bribery from NIA personnel and citizens respectively. We may not be at scandal proportions yet, but it’s worrying all the same.

The spectre of corruption hovers over many transactions in the public space that involve some form of human interaction; be it trying to acquire a license or passport or any other process that greets Ghanaians with the daunting mask of red tape. But that is no excuse to flash out some Cedis like a doctor’s note saying one was allergic to queues or protocol.

I’ve heard from a few people in the Kpone Katamanso district who lamented the sight of other Ghanaians eager to grease palms for special treatment at a registration centre. And it didn’t have to take some random citizens getting in touch with me for this to become apparent. Just go on Twitter and search “Ghana Card”. You will be greeted by a fair amount of allegations and complaints. Some even hint at their willingness to “hustle” the system.

I’ve got my card and did so during the limited first phase and it looks like I was spared hellish frustration some Ghanaians are going through. A man I spoke to painted this picture of the registration process basically resembling the wild west. After heading to his centre at around 4 am, for the second day in a row, he had to threaten some registration officials to get his wife to start the process some 12 hours later.

“If you people dare and you don’t register my wife, then tomorrow, you will send me to prison or I send you to prison,” he recalled in his account to me. He intimated that stalling tactics were a ploy by the officials to extort money from the people seeking the card. “They say we should find some coins for them before they register us,” was the summation of the struggles at that centre by another woman.

The allegations that sprung up since the mass registration begun in April are a reminder that the fish rots from the head. The top brass at the NIA may not have issued memos telling certain personnel to extort or accept bribes from citizens. But a failure of systems is creating the perfect incubator for the graft.

Some spotted this corruption incubator being put in place and acted. The Centre for Socioeconomic Studies (CSS) petitioned the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) over anomalies it felt would leave the process in murky waters. The centre felt, among other things, ignoring the legal requirements for the registration and using “its own whims as regards the personal information listed under Section 4 of Act 750 in dealing with registrants,” will be problematic.

“This conduct by the NIA raises serious public concerns and has resulted in public confusion and frustration over which particulars are expected of citizens who wish to be registered for the Ghana Card. By this conduct, the CSS strongly believes that the NIA has failed to structure its services in accordance with law.”





After the registration itself started, some acts of malfeasance were seemingly confirmed and quelled. A registration officer was arrested in May for allegedly attempting to register two foreigners; Nigeriens. Some other officers were arrested at Awudome for allegedly registering people for the Ghana Card in clandestine fashion after working hours in a private residence.

The latter incident prompted the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to cry foul and claim there was a plot by the governing New Patriotic Party to rig the 2020 general election. The party also claimed it had observed centres where officials were collaborating with NPP officers to frustrate the process.

My sympathy for the NDC is limited because these challenges transcend the various administrations. Complaints about long queues and logistical challenges have been as certain as death and taxes. For the current process, the NIA is contending with limited equipment, network challenges and adjudications that slow the process and fan the cauldron brewing the corruption.

There is something to be said of desperation hovering over the process; like if you do not register, you will be rounded up and carted off to a no-mans-land or miss out on heaven. Keen ears will be aware that the NIA intends to set up district and regional offices after the mass exercise because, believe it or not, more Ghanaians will be born and come of age that need registering. But sensitisation has been limited, meaning people travelling from outside districts to try and register as early as possible has contributed to the challenges.