Residents of the Ashanti region have been called upon to take advantage of the Mass Registration Exercise about to begin in the Ashanti region to get their Ghana Cards free of charge.
Already, over 4.8 million Ghanaians have been registered for the Ghana Card in the Greater Accra, Volta, Oti, Northern, Savannah, North East, Upper East, Upper West, Bono, Bono East and Ahafo regions.
Addressing journalists in Kumasi on Monday, Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA); Prof. Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah stated that the authority is left with five more regions to cover. “It must be indicated that the NIA has, to date, registered a total of 4,857, 845 persons and printed 4, 291, 840 cards,” Prof Attafuah disclosed, and added that the authority had issued 2,695,478 cards to qualified Ghanaians.
He assured that all necessary equipment and logistics have been made available to ensure that the registration of some 2,811,229 people targeted for registration in the Ashanti region goes on smoothly. He hinted that over fifteen thousand trained staff will be in the region to see to the success of the exercise.
He revealed that the mass registration exercise in the Ashanti region will begin on Wednesday, December 11, 2019 to Wednesday January 8, 2020 at 833 registration centres across the region. He also stated that the centres will be opened from 7am to 5pm each day excluding Sundays and statutory public holidays.
Prof. Attafuah advised Ghanaians to avoid making false claims during the registration process as it is an offense punishable by law and such false declarations will eventually return to haunt their makers. He also advised would-be participants to avoid any attempts to jump the queue or disrupt the process in any way.
He used the opportunity presented by the Press conference to highlight the importance of the revamped National Identification Project explaining that it will help improve security, provide a one-stop-shop for other Identification cards including Drivers’ license, help bearers get e-passports, enable bearers do financial transactions outside the country, prevent tax evasion amongst several others.
He cautioned against any attempt to bribe an NIA officer for whatever reason and stressed that the exercise is entirely free. He said that any report of extortion or bribery made against an NIA officer will be dealt with swiftly and firmly especially if there is some form of evidence to corroborate the allegation.
He also assured that all data collected will be well secured and not loosely made available to third parties to abuse.
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