Does a Ghanaian Need Identity Card Now or ....

... In the Near Future - Revisited

The aim of this write up is in response to the overwhelming responses and comments from many Ghanaian both at home and abroad on my earlier write up entitled “Does a Ghanaian Need Identity Card Now or in the Near Future.” The title of the article has brought out the ‘best’ English scholars to correct or tell me how the title should have been framed. Not being an Englishman and has no claim of being a master over the English language I have taken notice of the suggestions and corrections. I wish to extend my sincere thank to everyone who either made a comment or correction. However, those corrections would not deter me from responding to their suggestions and criticisms.

Below is one of the commentators on my earlier article. I am taking this opportunity to expatiate on my earlier article and to rebuff the notion some people hold who one would expect to know better due to their privilege position in our society. Also, I will encourage readers to critically examine the commentator’s article which is reproduced below without any change to his English grammar, cohesiveness and the points he raised as reasons so important for the National Identification Card Project to go ahead. Now Read on…..

Rejoinder by Alex Awode

“The passing of the National Identification bill has raised some pros and cons on the need, if ever, of such a project especially regarding the state of other sectors of the economy that needs serious attention. Mr. Kosivi Glover argues in his article ‘Does Ghanaian Need Identity Card.. of March 21,2006’ (I’m assuming the title to be a typo since grammatically the preferred heading should have read- Does a Ghanaian Need or Do Ghanaians Need, but I digress) that the time is not right for such a legislation to be passed nor will it at the present moment. My interest is to address his concern on how will it benefit the ordinary Ghanaian. Ghana does not boast of a comprehensible address system or a detailed layout structure as noted by all and sundry but a unique form of identification, even at this stage, will have inherent benefits for those living in the country.

There are countries that do not have identification cards; Canada, Australia, Sweden and the United States are the well known examples. However, whereas identification cards are not used in these and other countries, there is a unique form of serialization for health purposes as in the case of Australia or for social security benefits as in the case of the US. Countries that do use some for of national identification as a card are Germany, France, Belgium and Spain among others. Each country identity card contains certain amount of relevant information. The government, unfortunately, has not been forthcoming as well noted by Mr. Glover, on the nature, format and details of how this national ID card. My interest in his article is to explicate why Ghanaians should care and consider the benefits involved in obtaining a specific form of identification. The bone of contention, now that the bill has been passed is whether the government will follow the Chilean example of with a photograph, names, date and place of birth, signature, and personal number? Or that of the Malaysian which includes the date of birth, parents name, religion, ethnicity, sex, physical characteristics, place of birth and any other identification mark on the reverse side; the front face carries the photograph, fingerprints, and IC number.

Whatever the decision taken, with the input of the citizenry, the national identification card can and will open doors to nationals and resident aliens alike. How will this be accomplished, one asks? Information is vital within all spheres of live. Whether it is financial, educational or just pure entertainment, details of customers that an organization deals or will want to deal with plays is paramount to the success of that business. With a unique form of identification, the propensity for mistaken identity or erroneous data submission is reduced drastically though not totally removed. Data shared will be further enhanced with the presence of a credit bureau.

What is a credit bureau? A credit bureau privately owned and run establishment that collects and compiles data (again the operative word) regarding the solvency, responsibility and details of an individual and business in order to present a form of report in evaluating the financial stability of the applicant in question. Data that is not captured nor offered are ethnic background, personal accounts, religious and political affiliation and criminal record. There are three major credit bureaus in the world: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion and they operate solely or as partners in most developed countries. There are two types of credit referencing agencies: (i) private credit bureaus and ii) public credit registers. The former can be found in most European countries and North America whilst the latter is prevalent in most Latin countries. Currently, there are two registered credit referencing agencies in Ghana.

Now that a credit referencing bill is to be put before parliament soon, credit granters can now assess a potential and current customer’s credit worthiness at a faster and detailed pace. Mr. Kosivi argues that once redevelopment of the major metropolis is completed, one will be at liberty to use any form of identification whether driving license, birth certificate, student ids, etc as a form of identification. I beg to differ with that analysis. Without a proper unique (key word here) identifier, what is there to prevent falsification of cards, identity mix up (in the case of similar names), etc? I’m not saying such problems will not occur with the national database but data errors can be easily noted and corrected when a specific code is assigned per individual. Even with Ghana boasting of a planned layout that rivals other developed countries, without a distinct mode of identification, other current forms of id will still need to be supported with additional documents.

A credit bureau makes use of this unique id and thereby eliminates requirements for auxiliary information like proof of residence, utility bills, etc because all such information will be displayed under that individual’s name. Credit can be provided or denied based on one’s financial character alone and this allows for monetary responsibility since failure to repay a loan, issuing of a dud check will result in an increase of one’s credit risk. Obtaining credit and reducing the risk involves are just some of the benefits from the use of both bills (national id and credit referencing). The decline of physical monetary transactions will not only provide for better savings and improved banking services and products but also an enhancement of living standards for all and sundry. Taking cue from Dr. Nii-Moi Thompson’s economic review delivered at the 49th Independence symposium organized by the Patriots of the CPP and Youth for Action, I will take two of six pointers he listed as indices for development- 1. tapping domestic and external commercial sources and 2. national savings mobilization.

The effective management of national identification program and its link to the credit bureau data sharing will indirectly result in the manifestation of the two points listed above. That is because as individuals become more aware of the importance of a good financial report as it is tied with their id, it will enforce more financial responsibility not only in the taking of loans but also increase in savings as more money will now be set aside for such and for investment. SMEs will gain greater access to much needed capital which translates into more jobs, extra revenue and more profits where government can now tap from. The presence of a credit bureau marks a quantum leap economically of a country. This can be seen in the survey done by the World Bank, between 1999-2001 of 60% of banking institutions used, regarding the effect of information sharing in that sector. Where 31.10% of GDP growth was as a result of no information sharing, a whooping 66.42% was as a result of the sharing of both positive and negative information. (Information sharing in credit markets: a survey, Tullio Jappelli. Marco Pagano, 2003) Imagine how much more growth can be accrued throughout the economy.

To be able to better assess data submitted and provided, a unique form of classification is needed. With the exemption of South Africa which has a national identity, other African countries like Nigeria, Namibia, etc are seeing the growing need for credit referencing agency to stem the high rate of default within financial institutions, fraud and provided better credit services to deserving and especially poor customers. There can be no better time than the present. How well it is implemented is another matter”.

Now My Response

On the whole I was very pleased with the variety of comments and views expressed although some of the comments were far off the mark of the theme of the article. I had three responses sent direct to me. But I replied one and the latest of the three responses sent direct to me is published above. I noted that both the second and third response are similar.

From my personal analysis of the third response above and the second response received, I can deduce from the two authors as people with economic/ banking and computer knowledge and skill. With their IT back ground they strongly believed that once a data has been entered and processed by a computer and then stored at a data base that data is supreme. From their judgment, such data base is the ultimate solution to identification of citizen of any country without any significant impediments.

I would like to quote from Alex Awode’s article above and my responses to every quote.

“My interest is to address his concern on how will it benefit the ordinary Ghanaian. Ghana does not boast of a comprehensible address system or a detailed layout structure as noted by all and sundry but a unique form of identification, even at this stage, will have inherent benefits for those living in the country”.

One wonders what is ‘unique’, about an Identity card no one knows of the format, the nature and the data to be included in the card and the data base, which cannot be included in a driving license or passport or hospital or student or bank cards. Mr. Awode wants to tell the whole world that a mere plastic card with personal information with a so-called unique number linked to a data base would by itself become a benefit to those who hold that plastic card. He does not see any benefit from having a comprehensive layout of the buildings with better addressing system. May God help Ghana for this are the people who have spent most part of their working lives in Western countries and have the opportunity to be serving in our ruling Governments. These people are trusted in important positions with the hope that they would bring their knowledge, skill and experience gained in overseas, to bear on their positions. But sadly majority of these people are only interested serving their personal interest to the detriment of the ordinary men and women in Ghana.

“There are countries that do not have identification cards; Canada, Australia, Sweden and the United States are the well known examples. However, whereas identification cards are not used in these and other countries, there is a unique form of serialization for health purposes as in the case of Australia or for social security benefits as in the case of the US”.

This paragraph addressed the issue I raised that a well structured lay out of the country’s buildings, Ghanaians can also use other form of identity cards without spending huge sum of money on Identity Card which in the long-run would be of no use to anyone no matter whatever information is included or shown on the card.

“The bone of contention, now that the bill has been passed is whether the government will follow the Chilean example of with a photograph, names, date and place of birth, signature, and personal number? Or that of the Malaysian which includes the date of birth, parents name, religion, ethnicity, sex, physical characteristics, place of birth and any other identification mark on the reverse side; the front face carries the photograph, fingerprints, and IC number”.

I expect Mr. Awode to be aware that the current Ghanaian Driving License has got holder’s name, photograph, date of birth, house numbers that can not be traced. Other characteristics Mr. Awode have mentioned can also be included in the other form of IDs.

“Whatever the decision taken, with the input of the citizenry, the national identification card can and will open doors to nationals and resident aliens alike. How will this be accomplished, one asks? Information is vital within all spheres of live. Whether it is financial, educational or just pure entertainment, details of customers that an organization deals or will want to deal with plays is paramount to the success of that business. With a unique form of identification, the propensity for mistaken identity or erroneous data submission is reduced drastically though not totally removed. Data shared will be further enhanced with the presence of a credit bureau”.

The question is how many Organisations or Institutions in Ghana currently have a computer through out their establishment? The telephone communication system and electricity power does not cover all parts of the country. Hence, I do not see how data can be easily accessed or shared.

When Ghana introduced computerized Passport system, the reason behind it was to improve security and stamp out duplication. Is Mr. Awode aware that some Ghanaians are currently able to obtain two or more passports. Though unique numbers are used on each passport it has not eradicate the old practice of one person holding two or more passports with the same identity.

Mr. Awode believes the greatest benefit of having a national Identity Card is Ghanaians would be able to obtain loan from finance providers using the Id data base as the most useful information data base. What Mr. Awode and people of his ilk failed to realize or may not be aware off, if they are aware they failed to tell us, is that Banks or financial providers do not rely solely on ones credit worthiness to provide credit or advance money to anyone. Much as I would concede that credit worthiness is one important ingredient in the decision process, customers ability to pay back the loan is vital on the decision of banks to advance credit than credit worthiness. I do not know any country where a Credit Bureau data base which is mostly operated by private organisations is linked to or shared information with a Government Data Base which contains their national’s confidential and personal information. Hence, it is not possible that Banks and Credit providers will have access to ID Card Data Base which they could use to lend money to their customers.

I believe strongly it would be useless to Banks if there is a data base on all Ghanaians to show who is credit worthy and who is not, but majority of the people on such data base are not gainfully unemployed. I also believe strongly that no bank or credit provider will be relying on a data base to lend money to people without a fixed address that can be traced. My question to Mr Awode and his like minded is, what sort of address is going to appear on the IDs and the data base? Is it Post Office Box numbers operating at the moment or the current House numbers such as AC874/25 when the next/ adjacent house number is DJ546/34? If you find a missing ID card where are you going to send it to?

Mr. Awode’s contention is that once there is Credit Bureau and so-called ID card with Mr. Awode’s ‘unique’ magic number Banks would be rushing to lend money to Ghanaians whether they are in gainful employment or not. Mr. Awode, I can bet my bottom dollar to tell you that no bank, may be the one Mr Awode is the MD for, would give money to anyone without a job but with an ID card with so called ‘identifier number’ boldly printed on it.

How many Ghanaians have access to loan from the Banks? The fact is customers who default on loan repayment can not be traced to their homes due to the current house numbering system.

At this juncture I would like to enumerate the economic, social and environmental benefits for redeveloping Ghana now than tagging Ghanaians with little or no benefit coming out of the exercise:

If the government lunches a comprehensive development plan which will mean bulldozing unapproved structures, structures built on planed roads, new buildings with its associated roads, bridges, culverts, water, electricity, telephones and other infrastructure this will result in a large scale employment to a large proportion of Ghanaians. It would be the impetus the Ghanaian economy need for the envisaged ‘golden age of business’ the current government is propagating. An ID project on the other hand would give relative minute employment to Ghanaians. It is only the person who is awarded the contract to produce the ID Card and his family would be making money at the expense everyone else.

With the development project it would create multiplying or ripple effect in the building, transport, food, environment, industries, etc.

A comprehensive layout of the buildings with its associated fixed addressing system would help in population census exercise as and when it is needed and other survey work by agencies including the credit bureaus which have the authority to do so. It may even save the government money by just delivering census forms to households and the people in each house hold filling the forms and return them to central location for the collating and analysis without employee large number of people for the census work.

The Electoral Commission’s work of registration of Ghanaians for election purposes and demarcation of electoral boundaries would be much more enhanced. Electoral Commission data base could be linked to the data base of Birth and Death Registry, the Police, Immigration Department etc not any privately owned data base as suggested by Mr. Awode.

With every one in Ghana be it indigenous or resident foreigners with a traceable address as well as having gainful employment this would encourage banks and other credit providers to lend them money for a worthwhile venture as the ability to pay of borrowers are apparent and when the debtor is in default he or she can be traced to fixed address not a mere ID card.

Instead of an ID card the government should use the money to establish a comprehensive computerized Birth and Death Registry with every Ghanaian whether leaving in Ghana or overseas to have his/her name on the Register. The birth certificate would have the name, sex, date of birth, mother and father’s name and their date of birth and country of origin and local area and above all their fixed address at the date of birth. Those of us who were born without birth certificate should be issued with one. These certificates would be serially issued as this registry would have a central data base from which every district registry would draw their number from.

With a comprehensive addressing system it would help in health delivery by encouraging the ambulance work whereby people can ring and ask for an ambulance to pick them in any emergency situation to the hospital.

This would also help in transportation namely all motor vehicle plates and driving license would be issued using fixed address. With fixed address, taxi operators could operate radio taxi cabs by getting call from residents who would call to a central radio dispatch centre which in turn would contact individual drivers who would be given the name and the address of the customer which would enable the driver to pick up the passenger.

A comprehensive addressing system would enable the police to have a comprehensive database which will assist the police in their criminal investigation work. It would also make the police administration to implement on the spot fine for traffic offence by issuing fine ticket to traffic offending drivers in contrast to the current system of police ceasing driver’s license for traffic offence.

It would also create an employment for more people to be employed in the postal system by house to house mail delivery and courier delivery work.

It would help develop the real estate industry by developing a database of house stock there by assisting the movement of people from one address to the other. It would help politicians to know the number of people in their constituency and would make them aware who is in and who is out of their constituency.

Above all it would help the district, regional and national government in long-term development planning and budgeting.

I believe any government who has the political will and courage to implement this agenda would be remembered by generations unborn long after the government has left office. It is one issue this writer is watching patiently to see which of our political parties has the guts to take on board.

Those who might not have read my earlier piece and might be tempted to have wrong conclusion are refer to my article entitle “Does a Ghanaian Need ID… published on 21 March 2006. Long Live Ghana, Long Live Africa.