The National Identification Authority (NIA) has reiterated that any Ghanaian who lacks a birth certificate or passport, the two prescribed identity for the registration of the Ghana card can be registered by being vouched for in accordance with the law, at no cost to them.
Despite a recent call by former president John Agyekum Kufuor who backed the Minority in parliament’s suggestion that the voter ID card should be used as a prescribed identity for the registration process to avoid excluding majority of Ghanaians in the process, the NIA insists on rejecting the voter ID card.
The NIA said the Ghana card is not a substitute for the voter’s ID card and have since shown no sign of rescinding its decision to allow Ghanaians use the voter ID for the Ghana card registration.
Following Mr Kufuor’s call, the authority has released a statement which reads: “The National Identification Authority has observed with gratitude media reports to the effect that Ex-President J. A. Kufuor has called on all Ghanaians to avail themselves for registration and issuance of the Ghana Card. The NIA welcomes his unqualified endorsement of the registration exercise and his clear rejection of the boycott by the Minority in Parliament. The Ex-President’s call underscores the importance of the National Identification System to effective identity verification and planning, and in accelerating the course of our Nation’s economic, social and political development.
“The NIA also takes note of Ex-President Kufuor’s comment on the exclusion of the voter’s ID card as one of the identity documents required by an applicant for registration for the Ghana Card. The NIA, as a creature of statute, will continue to be governed by, and respect, the existing laws passed by Parliament.
“In exercising its statutory mandate, the NIA is determined to ensure that every Ghanaian at home and abroad is duly registered and issued with the Ghana Card, while at the same time doing all in its power to protect the boundaries of Ghanaian citizenship and the accuracy and integrity of the National Identity Register as by law required. Indeed, as NIA has pointed out time and again, those Ghanaians who lack any of the prescribed identity documents can be registered by being vouched for in accordance with the law, at no cost to them.
“There is absolutely no intention on NIA’s part to disenfranchise or denationalize any Ghanaian. The National Identity Register being compiled by the NIA is not a substitute for the Voter’s Register which the Electoral Commission alone is by law mandated to compile, and the Ghana Card is not a substitute for the Voter’s Identity Card.”
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
