From 1^st July, 2022, the Ghana Card will be the only identification for banking or financial transactions, the Bank has disclosed.

This is in furtherance of its objective of ensuring the safety of the financial system.

In a statement, the Central Bank said this is pursuant to Regulation 7 of the National Identity Register, 2012 (L.I. 2111).

In this regard, the BoG is directing Banks, Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions, Non-Deposit-Taking Financial Institutions; Payment Service Providers and Dedicated Electronic Money Issuers as well as Forex Bureaus and Credit Reference Bureaus to start using the Ghana for identification from beginning of July, 2022.

“In line with this Notice, Section 30 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2020 (Act 1044) and Regulation 12 of the Anti-Money Laundering Regulations, 2011 (L.I. 1987), all financial institutions shall take steps to update customer records with the Ghana Card.”

Furthermore, “customers of Bank of Ghana regulated financial institutions are therefore advised to update their records with their respective financial institutions with the Ghana Card in line with this Notice.”

The Central Bank said for Known Your Customer purposes, the National Identification Authority verification transaction platform will be integrated into the Bank of Ghana’s financial monitoring platform.

This is to ensure that all financial transactions performed within the ecosystem are linked to one identity and information, and unique codes for the transactions shared with the BoG to facilitate the identification of initiators/beneficiaries for track and trace purposes.

It will include but not limited to transactions b banks; non-bank Financial Institutions and Mobile Money Operators (MMOs).