We are poised to give out data for new voters' register - NIA to EC

The Executive Director of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Prof. Ken Attafuah says his outfit is well poised to deliver data to the Electoral Commission (EC) to compile a new voters register for the upcoming 2020 general elections.

According to Prof. Ken Attafuah, the Authority as of today January 18, ‘can push to the EC the data search’ of all the eligible Ghanaians currently registered under the National Identification System.

“The NIA is poised to deliver data to the Electoral Commission for the new voters' register with its invigorated capacity and the mass registering exercise scheduled to end by March 2020, and when that is over, we will use the equipment’s and personnel to set up permanent NIA offices in regions, municipalities and districts across the country,” he explained.

“The enrollment that we’re doing captures all the biometrics that the Electoral Commission requires, such as the iris, fingerprints and also captures the facials. The NIA is connecting all the details that the EC needs with the exception of the polling station numbers,” he disclosed.

“As at yesterday January 17, the Authority has registered a total of 7,310,193 eligible Ghanaians and issued cards to some 4,262,471 Ghanaians. The exercise so far has resulted in 6,282,192 cards printed and we do have a backlog of some 565,030 cards expected to be issued with 416,000 awaiting distribution due to some various discrepancy challenges,” Prof. Ken Attafuah made this known in a phone interview on JoyFM’s News File on January 18, 2020.

The NIA was established by an Act of Parliament (Act 707) to register all Ghanaians and legally and permanently resident foreign nationals six years and above under the National Identification System (NIS), create a national database or register, issue them with National Identity Cards (Ghana Cards) and manage the use of the database.

The Authority is also mandated to establish a national data centre, ensure the accuracy and security of such data, manage a national database, set up a system to collect, process, store, retrieve and disseminate personal data on the population to Ghanaian citizens – both resident and non-resident, and legally and permanently resident foreign nationals.