NIA To Begin Mass Ghana Card Registration In The North

The National Identification Authority (NIA) is set to begin the mass registration of qualified citizens residing in the Northern, North East and Savannah Regions onto the National Identity Register and issue them with the Ghana Card.

The mass registration exercise, which begins tomorrow October 04 and ends on October 23, will take place at 750 centres in all the districts in the three regions.

Professor Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NIA, who announced this at a press briefing in Tamale on Thursday, said the mass registration for the Ghana Card would be conducted from 0800hours to 1700hours each day excluding Sundays and public holidays.

Professor Attafuah spoke about the mandatory requirements for the registration, which included birth certificate or valid Ghana passport or certificate of citizenship and Ghana Post Digital Address.

He said those who did not have the mandatory documents, needed a relative issued with the Ghana Card, or two community members issued with the Ghana Card or serving or retired public servants, civil servants, the clergy amongst others to vouch for them to be registered.

The NIA has registered 2,902,035 eligible Ghanaians, printed 2,590,526 Ghana Cards, and issued 1,718,021 Ghana Cards to qualified citizens in the Greater Accra, Volta and Oti Regions, since the mass registration exercise began in the country from April 29, 2019 to September 14, 2019

Professor Attafuah spoke about the significance of the exercise and urged the citizenry to contribute to its success, saying it was one of the development projects for the country.

He emphasised that the mass registration exercise was non-political and not meant to give political advantage to any political party, urging the citizenry to trust in the exercise and take advantage to register.

Professor Attafuah said the NIA was determined to register all eligible citizens by the end of the year, adding that the NIA would open district offices from next year for citizens to go and register at their convenience in order to capture all eligible citizens.