Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has disclosed that Ghana will by the first quarter of 2022 have its identification card, the Ghanacard, recognized globally as an e-passport.

According to him, this means that the identification card can be read and verified in 197 countries and 44, 000 airports in the world.

Speaking at the Ashesi University and delivering a speech on the topic; “Transforming an economy through digitalization: The Ghana story”, Dr Bawumia noted that on coming into office, government moved quickly with the issuance of biometric national ID cards to the population. The Ghanacard project, he explained, was initiated by President Kufuor but was “practically abandoned for 8 years”.

Commenting on how digitization is addressing the issue of unique identification, Dr Bawumia maintained that although it is “not widely known” the Ghanacard contains the biometric information, that can be used to authenticate the identity of travelers.

Dr Bawumia established that government has been working with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) this year to “globally activate the e-passport” function of the Ghanacard.

“This means that by the end of the first quarter of 2022, the Ghanacard will be recognized globally as an e-passport… When this happens, holders of the Ghanacard will be allowed to board any flight to Ghana. Furthermore, the good news for diasporan Ghanaians is that when the Ghana Immigration Service is linked to the NIA architecture, diasporan Ghanaians who hold the Ghanacard should not have to obtain visas to travel to Ghana”.
Dr Mahamudu Bawumia

Following this, the Vice President announced that on 13th October 2021, Ghana officially became the 79th member of ICAO Public Key Directory (PKD) community.

“Ghana’s Country Signing Certificate Authority would therefore soon be imported into the ICAO PKD System through what is known as a Key ceremony. The Key Ceremony for Ghana will be held at the ICAO headquarters in Montreal Canada by the 1st quarter of 2022.
Dr Mahamudu Bawumia

15.7 million People enrolled On Ghanacard by NIA

So far, 15.7 million people, according to the Vice President, have been enrolled on the Ghanacard by the NIA and most of the population will be enrolled by 2022. With this, Dr Bawumia insisted that by virtue of the Ghanacard, the “identity of people” can be established using their fingerprints.

“Ghanaian and other embassies abroad will be able to establish the identity of Ghanaians using their fingerprints. Identity can be established even without the Ghanacard as long as you have been enrolled on the database”.
Dr Mahamudu Bawumia

Touching on how digitalization is addressing financial inclusion, Dr Bawumia asserted that Ghana is currently regarded as the fastest growing mobile money market on the continent. He noted that the incumbent government was able to attain this feat as a result of the mobile money interoperability (MMI) policy introduced.

This initiative, he elaborated, was implemented once government perceived that there was financial exclusion because “it was not possible to send money to customers of different mobile money service providers”.

However, he revealed that mobile money payments interoperability has made it possible to transfer money seamlessly across “different mobile money providers” and between bank accounts and mobile wallets.