Ghana to spend 1.22 billion dollars on national ID cards – NIA reveals

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Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of Ghana with his Ghana Card

Ghana’s national identification card, the Ghana Card, being spearheaded by the National Identification Authority (NIA) is expected to cost the country 1.22 billion dollars in the next 15 years.

Registration and issuance of national ID cards to Ghanaians by the Authority is set to begin from May 28 from the Jubilee House in Accra.

Speaking TV3 Wednesday on the registration exercise, Executive Director of NIA, Prof. Ken Attafuah said “over the next 15years this project is going to cost us as a nation $1.22 billion”.

He explained that the project is hinged on a “design-build-operate-transfer” agreement which will see both government and the private partner make some financial commitments.

“The private partners share of this burden is 678 million, the government of Ghana component 531 million,” he said.

Even though Prof. Attafuah would not disclose how much government has so far allocated for the project bus said “We have sufficient money to begin the process today”.

“I cannot tell you how much we have because when you need money, the money is made available to you”, he added.

He, however, noted, “Six months after we have started, government will make money available as and when it is required”.

The nationwide registration exercise which will be from one region to the other will also see the NIA register Ghanaians in the diaspora

Background

The Ghana Card project, which seeks to modernize and formalize the Ghanaian economy, was one of the campaign promises of the New Patriotic Party.

Government has said it will in the establishment of a credible national database and serve as the primary ID card that citizens will use to access all services in the country, including even travelling within the West African sub-region.

When fully implemented the Ghana Card will be the only valid ID for application for a bank account, passport, telephone number, property acquisition, driver’s license and many more.