The National Identification System (NIS) mass registration exercise is set to commence in the Upper West Region following the training of 1267 registration officers in the region. The 10-day registration exercise will start on July 22 to August 1 and will begin at the district level before being taken to the various communities in the region. Speaking in an exclusive interview to Joy News, Head of Public Affairs of the NIA, Ms Bertha Dzeble said the exercise will mark the penultimate set of registration exercises to be undertaken before completing the national exercise which first began in 2008 in the Central Region. “The exercise is basically to provide a secure and an undoubted way of verifying and identifying all Ghanaian citizens anywhere and all legally and permanently resident foreign nationals living in this country at all times. It is to protect and provide essential service to all of us and promote the integration of all persons living in the country and indeed it is to help build confidence in the business environment to ensure that all transactions we carry out is safe”. “It is also to provide a common platform to integrate and enhance public and private sector business activities so that it facilitates data sharing among all of these institutions for national development purposes”, she added. Ms Dzeble stressed that registration is free and any person who demand or offers money for registration should be reported to the security personnel in charge. She revealed that about 91,000 double registrations have been identified in the system so far, adding, that the NIA would not hesitate to arrest and prosecute offenders of double registrations. “People should not attempt to do it because we will be prosecuting. Our law says persons who have done that will be charged with 2,500 penalty units or would be jailed for about five years”. The registration which will cover persons six years and above will make use of existing polling stations in the region before mounting mobile registration units for public workers who may be at post during the registration. The authority, which was established under the Office of President, started as a Secretariat in 2003 and has had its fair share of financial problems due. The exercise was originally scheduled to end in April 2009 but has faced several hitches which have resulted in a five-year delay. The Upper East Region will be final sector to be covered and this will complete the entire exercise in order to provide a national database.