According to Colonel Peter Kwame Ghansah (Rtd), Head of Operations at the National Identification Authority (NIA), the Authority has registered 16,936,934 Ghanaians as of July 12 through pilot, mass, and ongoing registration procedures.
He stated that there were 16,743,832 cards printed, 895,140 Ghana cards that had not yet been collected, and 159,439 cards had been changed.
When representatives of the National Identification Authority (NIA) arrived in the House to update Members of Parliament (MPs) on the organization's operations and activities, Colonel Ghansah made this announcement.
The number of people whose records were updated, according to Colonel Ghansah, is 34,623, while the number of foreigners enrolled and the number of non-citizens who renewed their cards from 12,379 and 15,552 days, respectively, will pass from January to June 2022.
According to him, there have been 156,339 foreigners registered as of the end of 2013, which indicates that, on average, 17,371 foreigners are registered each year.
Additionally, according to Colonel Ghansah, between 2018 and 2022, the NIA signed MOUs with organisations such as the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Students Loan Trust Fund (SLTF), Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), the Bank of Ghana (BOG), Artel-Tigo, MTN, Vodafone, and Glow for the delivery of data harmonisation and integration services.
He said that following the MOU's implementation and the data harmonisation process, the NIA has transmitted data to organisations including the GRA, SSNIT, NHIA and MTN are two examples.
In all, he said, 15, 797,860 data had been transmitted for the GRA by the NIA, SSNIT, 15, 412,055, NHIA, 1,766,446, MTN, 11, 524,584, Vodafone, 10, 340,802, and Glo.
Colonel Ghansah said that the NIA was working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, the Births and Deaths Registry, the Ghana Immigration Service, the Passport Office, and the Electoral Commission for similar objectives.
He added that if the NIA-specified verification devices were accessible, Ghanaians who had registered but had not yet gotten their Ghana cards may still be verified by the banks and telecommunications firms.
Haruna Iddrisu, the minority leader, expressed worry in his remarks about the Ghana card, a public utility that is becoming less and less available to millions of Ghanaians.
He requested that the NIA provide a regional and district breakdown of both the total number of registrations and the number of cards issued by the Authority.
Many Ghanaians are having difficulty obtaining the Ghana card, he claimed.
Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the majority leader, underlined the demand in his statement that the NIA give the House a breakdown of the data by area and district.
Since Ghana is divided into regions, he said, "I believe that we should have the regional and district breakdown. When we get the complete complement of identity cards, it should even allow us to know region by region and district by district the ethnic breakdown of the nation."