Twenty-five (25) staff of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) drawn from its Head Office, Regional Office and Metropolitan, Municipal, District and Sub-Metropolitan offices of the Greater Accra region participated in the training of communicators for the National Identification System (NIS) project held on Thursday, August 9, 2018, at the Tomreik hotel, East Legon in Accra. The training programme, organised by the National Identification Authority (NIA) seeks to inform, educate and build the capacity of its partners on the mandatory and other requirements for the Ghana Card registration process to aid in the awareness creation and dissemination of accurate information to the citizenry across the country.
The Executive Secretary of the NIA, Professor Ken Attafuah, took participants through the historical perspectives of the NIA and the National Identification System (NIS) project, as well as current developments. He said although Ghana after independence sought to create a national identification system, the journey has not been smooth. He indicated that the process was actually initiated in 1969 and the first national identity card was issued in 1974. However, the exercise faced some challenges and the process was stalled until 2003 when the NIA was established to create a National Identification System. He said the Authority faced difficulties and was unable to distribute millions of cards printed in 2008.
Professor Attafuah assured participants and Ghanaians that the NIA has all the resources to execute its mandate. He said the current National Identity card (Ghana Card) being issued has a 148K chip with 14 applets and has the capacity to accommodate other identity cards in circulation. He stressed that in the near future, it will be difficult for citizens to conduct any public and private transactions without the Ghana Card. Professor Attafuah, therefore, urged all citizens to get involved and register to guarantee the establishment of their identity.
Other topics discussed were the objectives of the exercise, features, and benefits of the Ghana Card, requirements for registration as Ghanaians and foreigners, the legal framework of the NIS project, communications roll-out strategy, operational and technical challenges, and registration processes for Ghanaians abroad.
Participating institutions were the NCCE, Information Service Department, Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations, and the Identity Management Systems Ghana Limited (IMS).
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