The National Identification Authority (NIA) has cautioned the public to disregard a post on Facebook on 12^th August 2022, by Bright Simons of IMANI Ghana, insisting the current Ghana Card artwork was produced by Intelligent Card Production Systems Limited.

According to the Authority, the said post should be regarded as a “mix of half-truth, insinuation, self-praise and alarmism”. It noted that the controversy over the Ghana Card artwork, generated by the said post, is “wholly needless and distractive”.

“The current Ghana Card artwork was produced by Intelligent Card Production Systems Limited (ICPS) a wholly owned subsidiary of the Margins ID Group (the only Integraf Certified facility in Africa to Central Bank Level).”
National Identification Authority

For the avoidance of doubt and the education of the public, the NIA in a press statement, provided some “facts” on the Ghana Card artwork brand design. It indicated that under the direction of NIA/IMS II, ICPS redesigned the Ghana Card to reflect the evolution of the card from a 2-D bar code card to a “high security, ultra-modern, dual-interface, chip-embedded, multi-functional” identity card. This, it explained, is combined with the mandatory security features of the ECOWAS Electronic Machine Readable Travel Document/card (e-MRTD).

The NIA stated that the artwork for the Ghana Card was initially designed by SAGEM MORPHO (now IDEMIA) of France which won the contract for the production of the first generation of Ghana Cards in 2008. The said artwork, it elaborated, is the same one used for the Ghana Cards issued under the Foreigner Identification Management System (FIMS) to qualified foreigners lawfully resident in Ghana and the current generation of Ghana Cards.

“Under the contract, SAGEM designed, built and supplied to the Government of Ghana a technical platform for the Ghana Card to be operated by NIA. A term of the contract was that the artwork produced by SAGEM was exclusively for the use of the Republic of Ghana. SAGEM always held the artwork for and on behalf of the Government of Ghana, and it could not sell or otherwise pass it on to any person or entity.”
National Identification Authority

NIA Clarifies artwork of Ghana Card

The post by Bright Simmons suggested that the “Ghana Card brand design itself was not even owned by Ghana” but was owned by a French company and the “country had to pay to get it”.

The artwork, the NIA clarified, had to be designed by a facility with the certification to produce the high-level security artwork required as the same certification level needed for the design and production of currency. By 2017, it highlighted that as a result of changes in corporate ownership, IDEMIA became the successor of SAGEM, and owned the rights to the Ghana card artwork.

“In 2017, the Government of Ghana, through the NIA, took the decision to enhance the Ghana Card to include the new security features agreed to by ECOWAS Heads of State and Government during the chairmanship of H.E. John Dramani Mahama on 15th December 2014. The said decision by the ECOWAS leaders called for the establishment and harmonization of a biometric ECOWAS identity cards with common features to be used by ECOWAS member states to replace existing travel certificates.”
National Identification Authority

The Authority emphasized that although the Government of Ghana always had the privilege to pay for the artwork, it did not do so until 2017. This, it indicated, was to enable NIA and its technical partner, Identity Management Systems II Limited (IMS), a subsidiary of the Margins Group of Companies, to facilitate the migration of the artwork because there had to be a translation of the evolution of the card so that certain elements of the original design were maintained.

“This was especially crucial as approximately 900,000 Ghanaians were already in possession of the Ghana Card issued since 2008. Maintaining consistency in appearance with the Ghana Cards in circulation since the era of President John Agyekum Kufuor was also compelling for easy card recognition, aesthetic appeal and avoidance of confusion.”
National Identification Authority

Accordingly, the NIA stated that it bought the artwork from IDEMIA, the successor of SAGEM MORPHO, which could not have used it for any other purpose. It revealed that it acquired the artwork because it wanted to have sovereign control over it, “multi-nationalize it with the ECOWAS Card, and get IMS II to evolve it in the best interest” of Ghana.

“Based on the foregoing, it is both wrong and ignorant to suggest that the historic retention of the artwork (brand design) by a French company has any significance. NIA wholly welcomes well-considered comments derived from full-fledged and proper scrutiny that advances good governance, transparency and/or accountability.”
National Identification Authority