Ghanaians residing abroad, as well as children aged 0 to 15, would be considered for this next round.
Professor Kenneth Agyeman Attafuah, Executive Secretary of the NIA, stated this during a brief ceremony marking Identity Day For Africa (ID4Africa), which took place on September 16.
That initiative, he said, was part of a strategy to "maintain Ghana on the enviable route of reaching legal identity for all by 2030, in line with Target 16.9 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which encourages the provision of legal identification for all, including birth registration."
World ID Day
ID4Africa, founded in 2014, is a non-governmental organization (NGO) and Pan-African movement that assists African states in creating the strategic ability needed to construct "strong and responsible identity ecosystems in the service of development and humanitarian action."
Its goal is to promote the provision of legal identity in Africa for all human beings.
The NIA's Mission
Since 2015, Ghana has been a member of ID4Africa.
Prof. Attafuah stated that the purposes and values of ID4Africa were in line with its mandate to produce, maintain, provide, and encourage the use of national identity cards to advance the country's economic, political, and social activities.
In pursuit of that purpose, he stated that the NIA was resolved to guarantee that all eligible individuals who required national identity cards that were recognized internationally were registered and issued with their cards.
As a result, he said, the authority has projected its major operations for 2022 to 2025, including datelines for phase two of the registration effort, which will begin in November this year with the registration of Ghanaians in the Diaspora.
He stated that the children's activity will take off by the end of the year.
He stated that the NIA has already increased its offices and activities, as well as pushed out additional interventions as needed.
He mentioned mass registration operations, the installation of 16 regional offices and 276 operating district offices, as well as premium centres, among other actions.
Prof. Attafuah stated that the NIA was relying on embassies and high commissions throughout the world to ensure a successful exercise since they would have a more trustworthy database.
"The authority is supporting a partnership with Ghana's embassies and high commissions throughout the world to register all Ghanaians living abroad," he confirmed.
"Registration and issue of smart cards to Ghanaians aged six to 15 will begin in December 2022 or early January 2023, with the NIA intending to register around 1.5 million youngsters in this age group," he said.
The NIA Executive Secretary also stated that the registration of refugees in Ghana, as well as Ghanaians in detention facilities like jails, cells, mental hospitals, and asylums, will be one of the authority's primary duties from 2022 to 2025.
He did not, however, provide a timetable for those, only adding that "after the mechanisms for these two rounds of registration are finalized, the NIA will put out the beginning dates."
Cards already issued
Since the exercise started in November 2017, 17,109,627 persons have registered, according to Prof. Attafuah.
As of September 15, he stated, 15,826,148 of the total have received their Ghana cards.
He noted that 161,007 cards have also been given out to foreign nationals living in the nation.
He said that 1,283,479 cards remained uncollected for a variety of reasons, such as some in need of updates, others unable to find their collection spots, and yet others not turning up to pick them up because they "believe they have no need for them now."
He said that the data harmonization procedure had been effectively completed by the authorities with the major organizations that need the data for transactions and verification.
“The NIA has completed data harmonisation and transfer of data sets to the key institutions — the Bank of Ghana, 26 universal banks, the Ghana Revenue Authority, the National Health Insurance Authority and mobile network operators — following the execution of MoUs with them.
“It must, therefore, be appreciated that Ghanaians who have registered but have not yet been issued their Ghana cards can still be verified by the banks and the telecommunication companies if the verification devices specified by the NIA are available at these facilities,” he said.
“Regrettably, the NIA was compelled to close down those additional registration points following the announcement in March 2022 of the extension of SIM card re-registration to the second deadline.
“The announcement in March 2022 of the extension the re-registration to the second deadline of 31st July, 2022 resulted in the dramatic non-patronage of those points.
“With the approach of the new deadline of September 30, 2022, the demand for the card has returned and skyrocketed, triggering the need for extra-budgetary resources to accommodate the avalanche of demand,” he indicated.
Prof. Attafuah guaranteed that the NIA would make sure that everyone who had registered could pick up their cards because they had already been printed at a cost and needed to be distributed.