The National Identification Authority (NIA) is prepared to produce and issue any outstanding cards once the government pays its partners' debts, according to Professor Ken Attafuah, the Authority's executive secretary.
He claimed that while the government had already paid up a portion of the debt, a sizable sum remained unpaid.
"In less than two weeks, 541,529 cards may be printed [with the sum paid] when cards are issued.
"We have the capacity—over a thousand working printers—and qualified, experienced individuals who are eager to work but are now lounging around the house. "With 500 printers, we can produce 50,000 cards every day if we call those employees back to work," the man replied.
Prof. Attafuah said in an interview in Accra that the Authority's inability to issue Ghana Cards to the general public was due to financial limitations.
He said that the NIA owed a sizable sum of money to its associates, including the Identity Management System Ltd.
This led to the storage of more than 3.5 million stockpiles of cards in a bonded facility.
As of February 19, 2023, according to Prof. Attafuah, the NIA had registered almost 27 million persons; just 2.5 million remained to be added.
"There are still 541,529 unprinted cards." "That is, they are prepared for printing but have not yet done so, primarily due to budgetary challenges," he stated.
"From roughly August of last year, we have had financial constipation in the system, and it has produced a scenario where, despite having 3.5 million stocks of cards in a bonded warehouse, we are unable to evaluate the cards due to financial problems," he continued.
We are conducting this Ghana Card initiative under a public-private partnership agreement, and the banks, the private partner with whom the NIA conducts business, and Identity Management System Ltd., which is the private partner we are dealing with, are all owed money. The banks that have been financing this are unable to continue to absorb the cost and have thus refused to give the cards to us. That partner is due a large sum of money.
A new Constitutional Instrument (C.I.) that aims to make the Ghana Card the exclusive form of identification for voter registration for the general election of 2024 and subsequent elections will be presented to Parliament by the Election Commission.
Many qualified voters who would not have been able to receive their cards have been disenfranchised, according to several political observers, civil society organizations, and political parties, notably the opposition National Democratic Congress.
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