Over 500,000 Ghana Cards Ready For Distribution In Accra – NIA

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A total of 581, 767 Ghana cards are yet to be issued by the National Identification Authority after the end of the registration process in the Greater Accra Region.

The outstanding cards which were not given to the applicants due to internet connectivity have now been printed and are due for collection in two zones — the Accra West and Accra East.

In a statement to announce the official end of the mass registration exercise which began on April 29, in the Greater Accra Region, the NIA said 1,972,692 qualified Ghanaians were successfully registered.

Applicants who registered in these two zones but did not receive their cards can now do so before July 13.

“The NIA would like to bring the following to the attention of the general public. A total of 1,972,692 qualified Ghanaians were registered for the Ghana Card during the period. A total of 581,767 cards were not printed instantly (due largely to connectivity problems) and could therefore not be issued to applicants.”

Collection of cards

Specific card collection is expected to take place upon the receipt of a phone call or text message.

“The cards have since been printed and are ready to be distributed to applicants at specified locations in both Accra West and Accra East Zones. In the Accra West Zone, the 56 Card Collection centres which have been operating since 31st May 2019 will remain open in all the fourteen municipalities where registration took place. All registration centres in Accra East Zone zone will remain open for the purposes of card issuance only and NOT new registrations from Monday 8th July 2019 to Saturday 13th July 2019.”

“As has been the practice, NIA will continue to inform applicants whose cards are ready for collection via phone calls and/or text messages.”

Registration at districts offices

According to the Authority, it is committed to registering all Ghanaians under the scheme and will do so particularly for first-time applicants in yet to be set up offices across the districts and the regions.

“The NIA is committed to registering all qualified Ghanaians during the mass registration exercise and will continue to register at no cost, all first-time applicants at NIA District and Regional offices to be set up.”

NIA misses target

Meanwhile, the NIA had said that it missed its registration target in the Greater Accra Region because it was 100,000 short of its 2.3 million target for the capital.

The mass registration exercise in the Greater Accra Region ended on Saturday, July 6, 2019.

Head of Corporate Affairs at the NIA, Francis Palmdeti told Bernard Avle earlier on the Citi Breakfast Show that they were able to register about 1.9 million people in Ghana.

“We completed [the exercise] on Saturday. We are also aware that from the onset we said we were looking at hitting 80% of the estimated population, that are15 years and above. We were looking at a figure at the range of 2,390,277. As of Saturday, the figure that I received was in the range of 1,934,000. That is 100,000 short of our estimated target. What we have now is short of the 80%,” he explained.

He assured that the authority will soon begin premium services and institutional registration with the hope of making up for the missed numbers.

“We have had cause to introduce our premium service and institution registration which are all lawful arrangement to such people; we are unable to do institution registration now because we are expecting additional equipment.”

The registration process for the National Identification Card, also known as Ghana Card, was fraught with several challenges.

Applicants complain of long queues, network failure, malfunctioning equipment and other hectic processes they endured before securing their cards.

This made the exercise very tedious for most applicants who had to leave their work to the registration centres.

By: citinewsroom.com