The National Identification Authority (NIA) has announced it will issue 3,875,441 printed cards to Ghana Card applicants in 5,635 registration centers in all 16 Regions of Ghana concurrently beginning Monday 8th to Tuesday 16th June 2020.
According to the Authority, the nationwide card issuance blitz will enable 11,062,850 Ghanaians to possess Ghana Cards in good time to be used for vouching for their relatives or other Ghanaians who wish to register during the nationwide Mop-Up registration exercise commencing on 18th June 2020 and ending in mid-September 2020.
A statement issued Friday, June 6, 2020, by the Head of Corporate Affairs, ACI Francis Palmdeti explained that the exercises “will also enable persons in possession of the Ghana Card to use it for other mandatory purposes stated in the National Identity Register Regulation, 2012 (LI 2111), including registering as a voter and vouching for others as Ghanaians”
To reduce the risk of Coronavirus infection,” the NIA says it “will provide adequate PPE’s for all NIA field officials for use during the exercise. All Registration Centres will be equipped with the requisite resources to ensure the effective observance of all prescribed health and safety protocols. Also, security personnel will be deployed at each Registration Centre to ensure that crowd control measures such as physical distancing and appointment system are strictly observed”.
Also, “applicants attending at NIA card collection centers MUST wear a mask and wash their hands before they begin the card collection process.”
The Electoral Commission of Ghana has made the Ghana Card a primary breeder material in a Constitutional Instrument before Parliament for proof of nationality in its intended compilation of a new biometric Voters’ Register.
This has been stiffly opposed by some civil society organizations and opposition political parties led by the largest opposition party in Ghana the National Democratic Congress given that less than half of the expected 17 million eligible Voters’ have the card.
Source: Mybrytfmonline/Obed Ansah
