Bawumia defends his remark, "I'll choose Ghana Card over 1,000 interchanges."
Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia was chastised for preferring the Ghana Card over road interchanges in the country's quest for development.
He stated that the national identification card, also known as the Ghana Card, is more beneficial than 1,000 interchanges while speaking at the launch of two new high-level information technology programs at the Accra Business School at Baatsona in Accra.
He observed that while some Ghanaians do not fully understand the government's digitalisation drive, the government is determined to pursue the agenda as a vehicle to transform the economy.
"Some of the issues stem from independence." We inherited the problem of a lack of a unified national identification system. This has been with us since our inception. For the Ghana Card, we had put in place a national identification system.
"Today, we have 16 million Ghanaians with distinct identities, which is a significant transformation." Many people fail to recognize its significance.
"If you gave me 1000 interchanges or the Ghana Card, I'd take the Ghana Card because it has more impact," Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia said.
This comment, the Vice President noted, sparked outrage among some members of the public, with some questioning whether he was okay.
But addressing participants at the Civil Service Awards ceremony on Friday, July 29, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia revisited his "I'll choose Ghana card over 1,000 interchanges" comments again and tried to explain further.
"It appears that my Ghana card statement was misconstrued. I want people to consider it critically. For the first time in history, we have a biometric unique identity system that allows us to uniquely identify every individual, whether alive or dead. With this, the case of ghost names in our public sector system will be a thing of the past...at the National Service Scheme, we discovered 14,000 ghost workers, saving 114 million Ghana cedis annually from just one institution because we look for unique identity. SSNIT recently reported finding 27,000 ghost pensioners who were receiving 327 million cedis per year."
Ghana card
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's administration relaunched the Ghana Card registration on Friday, September 15, 2017.
The card according to the government will serve as a unique identifier for both resident and non-resident Ghanaians as well permanently resident foreign nationals.
Currently, the card serves as an electronic passport and SSNIT card with the Bank of Ghana also announcing that the card will be the only approved card for all bank transactions in the country.
The National Communication Authority (NCA), on the other hand, has asked citizens to re-register their SIM Cards with their Ghana Cards.
E-passport with Ghana Card
Despite the International Civil Aviation Organization's rejection, Dr. Bawumia recently announced that the Ghana Card's roll-out fully met the requirements for an E-passport (ICAO).
Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, Foreign Affairs Minister, refuted this claim.
She informed lawmakers that the procedures for accepting the Ghana card as a source document for international travel had not yet been finalized.
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