NIA ready to meet Ghana Card target if finance ministry clears debt – NIA boss

The proposal to introduce a new Constitutional Instrument (C.I) to make the Ghana Card the sole identification document for voter registration for the 2024 election has generated debate among Ghanaians with Minority Parliamentarians kicking against the decision.

A major argument by the Minority was that a significant section of Ghanaians have not acquired their Ghana Cards.

Contrary to this assertion, Speaking on the floor of Parliament, the Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Professor Kenneth Agyeman Attafuah has disclosed that his outfit has the capacity to print all outstanding Ghana Cards once the “financial constipation is cleared” by the Ministry of Finance.

According to him, 3.5 million Ghana Cards have been hoarded in a warehouse due to financial difficulty.

“Since about August of last year, we have experienced financial constraints in the system and it created a situation where even though we have 3.5 million stock of cards in a bonded warehouse, we are unable to assess the cards because of financial difficulty”, he said.

The Finance Ministry is expected to make an outstanding payment of GHS20m to Cal Bank and IMS by the end of February 28, 2022, for the release of the 3.5m cards to the NIA and the printing of the Ghana card and provide additional funding of GHS175,000 to support the expedited printing exercise.