Head of Corporate Affairs at the National Identification Authority (NIA), Abudu Abdul-Ganiyu has stated that the authority will resume Ghana Card registration on November 17, 2021.

The Authority also said the issuance of backlog of cards for persons who have already registered, will begin from November 8 to 16, 2021.

“We are going to be doing the issuance from today (November 8, 2021) up to the 16^th of November then from the 17^th of November, we would start what we call the new registration. So, persons who have not yet registered for the Ghana card at all, they will now be able to register on the 17^th of November. So that goes all the way as long as we continue to be present in the regions and districts,” he said.

Mr. Abudu Abdul Ganiyu was speaking on the AM Show on Joy News on Monday. He indicated that persons who have lost their cards can also request for replacement when the process begins.

“Now we have this category of people who have lost their cards, their cards are damaged, they want to do replacement. So replacement of cards will start on the 29^th of November and whiles doing replacement, we will also do update for people with wrong spelling, they want to add names to their present names and so on and so forth,” he told host Israel Laryea.

The Authority had earlier announced that it will open its 291 regional and district offices on November 3, 2021 but this did not take place as scheduled.

Mr. Abdul-Ganiyu explained that the delay in opening the offices, is due to the need for more stakeholder engagement.

“We opened the offices on the 3^rd of November, so up to the 5^th of November, we decided that for newly recruited staff who had to go stay at the regions and districts, most of whom are going to the villages and towns for the first time, it would be necessary for us to do some more stakeholder engagement and sensitization, so that took place from the 3^rd to the 5^th November,” he explained.

He added that “the last bit is the registration of Ghanaians who are below 15 years, so we’ll work out all the modalities and measures that needs to be put in place and we would issue another release to that effect when we are ready.”

Currently, about 17 million Ghanaians have successfully registered with five million others yet to receive their cards.

According to Vice President Bawumia, by the end of the first quarter of 2022, the Ghana card will be recognized as an electronic passport globally and will allow for easy identification of travelers across the world, especially in the West African sub-region.