Former Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Prof. Kenneth Agyeman Attafuah is calling for investigations into its failure to deliver national ID cards to Ghanaians, five years after embarking on a massive registration exercise.

He expressed worry that despite receiving funding for the project, the Authority has been unable to produce and distribute identification cards for registered Ghanaians and non-nationals living in the country.

The NIA in 2008 embarked on a mass registration exercise of Ghanaians and foreigners resident in the country and was expected to produce and distribute identification cards by close of 2009. The Authority has claimed it is unable to distribute the cards because it is cash strapped.

The NIA recently announced a decision to go in for a $115 million loan facility to issue new identity cards (Ghanacard) to Ghanaians despite an existing one, indicating that changes in technology necessitated the decision.

But Professor Attafuah says government must demand accountability for how the authority managed funds it received for the same project years earlier. 

 “An audit of the NIA is highly warranted,” Prof. Agyeman Attafuah told Kojo Yankson, host of the Super Morning Show, Thursday October 9.
“…we ought to also investigate, we ought to probe what got us here; why have we come to this destination that so much money has gone down the drain? We ought to do that rather so that we can retool our governance structures and ensure that accountability is not just rhetoric; accountability is substantive”.

He notes that the project is crucial to the country as the data from the exercise will be heavily depended upon by agencies under the government.

Admitting that government’s delay in the release of funds affected the operations of the Authority, Prof. Agyeman Attafuah suggested, a partnership between government and the private sector “is the most reasonable option, given the circumstances”.

“It is not just about registering people and giving them [Ghana] ID cards, it is creating a national repository of data on all of us from age six…storing it and ensuring its security is huge…

"The project should not be abandoned, the project must continue. That, coupled with the financial crunch we seem to find ourselves in, necessitates our looking elsewhere,” he proposed.