Alert us about foreigners registering for Ghana Card – NIA

The National Identification Authority (NIA) is asking the public to be vigilant during the Ghana card registration exercise and alert the authority when non-Ghanaians attempt to register.

It said citizens could formally raise objections against persons they believe are not eligible to be issued with the card.

The Authority’s appeal comes after a registration officer with the Authority was arrested on Tuesday allegedly attempting to register two Nigeriens.
Reports said the 26-year-old suspect, Timothy Wuni, attached to the Abossey Okai Central Mosque registration centre, was spotted by his supervisor in the process of registering the two Nigerien nationals,

Alhassan Abdul Samed and Abubakar Ruali for the Ghana Card which is limited to only Ghanaians.

The suspects ran away when they were confronted by some officials of the NIA.

The Head of Public Affairs at the NIA, Francis Palmdetti in an interview with Citi News said although their registration system is stringent to ensure that only qualified persons are issued with the card, Ghanaians have a responsibility of raising alarm over ineligible persons especially people of other nationals attempting to register.

“Anyone who has an issue with an applicant can raise an objection. Anybody who thinks that somebody is not qualified can raise an objection and the registration officer will take that objection into consideration and take the individual through the formal process of a challenge,” he said.

Mr. Palmdetti said the NIA has a committee made up of stakeholders including a representative of the Ghana Bar Association, a senior police officer, an official from Social Welfare, representatives of the traditional authority, local authority and clergy with a magistrate or circuit judge as a chair to look into such challenges and make a declaration on the subject.

“It ends up before a committee. It is chaired by a magistrate or a circuit court judge and you have on that committee, representatives from the Ministry of Education, Social Welfare, the Assembly, the Chiefs, Religious bodies, Police Divisional Commander and rep of the Ghana Bar Association,” he noted.

He added that the report of the committee is accepted and acted upon, whether or not the said applicant must be allowed to register or denied.

He, however, added that the NIA had its staff in check to ensure that they do not circumvent the processes and register ineligible persons.

Mr. Palmdetti explained that its systems can easily identify a staff who registered ineligible persons.

“For the system we operate, one has to go through various levels. The particular officer who was arrested was just filling forms. That is the first step of the registration. But before you go through the process, one has to be vetted, a registration officer of a center will have to interview an applicant, the person’s data will be captured and the applicant will then go through a verification process before a card is issued. For any information captured in our system, there is a trail as to who went about the registration.

We can always find and trace anybody who has registered an individual who is ineligible to register,” he said.

Ghana card registration

The National Identification Authority (NIA) started the mass registration and Ghana Card issuance exercise in the Greater Accra Region from Monday, April 29, 2019, and expected to end on Saturday, July 6, 2019.

The region has been divided into two zones: Accra West and Accra East, where registration centres have been opened at specific locations.

Source: citinewsroom.com