Millions of Ghanaians aged 15 and above who are still without the Ghana Card will be allowed to secure the national identity card from December this year and be captured on the national identification register.
The possibility is being provided by the National Identification Authority (NIA) through its upcoming continuous registration exercise, which is the final attempt to capture the rest of the first cohort of about 20 million people who are over 14 years old.
It will enable them to efficiently engage in essential transactions, including banking, tax payment, buying and selling of land, securing national health insurance, driver’s licence, SIM card, and passport, among other services, which they are currently not able to access personally without the Ghana Card.
Data sourced from the NIA showed that 17.56 million Ghanaians, aged 15 and above, out of the 30.8 million population, had been registered as of October 31, 2023.
Officials say more than 17.51 million cards have been printed, out of which 16.62 million have been issued, with 895,000 of the printed cards ready to be issued, but that the owners have not collected them.
So far, the cards of about 49,000 applicants have yet to be printed for a variety of technical reasons, while the registration of some 101,000 people has been blocked pending investigation for attempting to register more than once.
Additionally, 192,277 foreigners have been provided with non-citizen identity cards.
Plans are, however, underway to capture Ghanaians abroad in 2024 by providing registration services to about three million Ghanaian citizens outside the country for a fee between $20 and $50.
It would offer services to seven million young Ghanaians under 15 years of age and 10,000 refugees, asylum seekers and other persons of concern.
Although not the entire population has been captured at this moment, the feat is a major boost in the quest of the government to create a foundational identification system with the primary purpose of establishing legal identity for its citizens.
It also offers renewed hope for the government’s commitment to reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which seek to encourage the provision of legal identity, including birth registration, for all by 2030. The NIA noted that the cards were issued to Ghanaians free of charge, while foreigners were required to pay $120 for them.
He explained that in the case of Ghanaians abroad, the law stipulated that those in West Africa should pay a fee of approximately $20, while those in the rest of Africa and outside Africa should pay $30 and $50, respectively for the card.
