Head of Corporate Affairs at the National Identification Authority (NIA), Abudu Abdul Ganiyu, has disclosed that new registrants for the Ghana card are expected to receive their cards instantly upon registration.

According to him, the registration for new persons is expected to commence from November, 17, 2021 and will continue in “perpetuity” so long as the Authority has a nationwide presence. Mr Ganiyu explained that the difficulty with registration process has been the Authority’s absence “across the regions and district”, a challenge the NIA has resolved.

Mr Ganiyu noted that the Authority has come to stay like any other “state institution” and persons can walk into any of the district and regional offices to seek its services.

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“So, it is expected to be instant. During mass registration there were challenges, obviously to do with internet connectivity. But in these offices that we have set up, having conducted the survey, we are quite sure that internet at these offices will be much better. For people turning up to register, the most important thing is satisfying the requirements and making sure that whatever data you are giving us is accurate, consistent and you should be able to walk away with your card instantly”.
Mr Abudu Abdul Ganiyu

Commenting on the process for persons who visit the registration centres, Mr Ganiyu indicated that normally, the swiftness of the process will depend on the number of people “queuing for the interview” to take place. As such, once the interview is completed, it is only a matter of entering the data by the data entry clerk.

Mr Ganiyu intimated that the process for registration is likely within “five to ten minutes” and there are an appreciable number of persons who can “testify to this”.

Schedule for Ghana cards issuance

The NIA Head of Corporate Affairs gave a comprehensive breakdown of the schedule for the issuance of cards and addressed other matters. He revealed that the Authority in preparation for the permanent offices they will be occupying, ended a “refresher training” last week Sunday for staff recruited and subsequently opened the offices on November 2, 2021.

“So, up to the 5^th of November we decided that for newly recruited staff going into the districts and regions to work… there was the need for us to do some more stakeholder engagement [and] some sensitization. So, that took place from the 3^rd to the 5^th”.
Mr Abudu Abdul Ganiyu

Mr Ganiyu stated that from today, November 8, 2021 through to November 16, the NIA will be issuing cards that have been in backlog since the end of mass registration.

“Then from the 17^th of November we will start what we call the new registration. So, persons who have not yet registered for the Ghana card at all, they will now be able to register. We also have some other category of people who have lost their cards… So, replacement of cards will be done on 29^th of November [and] whiles doing replacement we will also be able to do updates for people with wrong spelling of names… All those updates will also start on the 29^th of November”.
Mr Abudu Abdul Ganiyu