Head of Corporate Affairs at the National Identification Authority (NIA), Abdul Ganiyu, has disclosed that 88% of qualified applicants have registered for the Ghana Card.

According to him, a total of 16,182,684 (88%) Ghanaians have enrolled for the Ghana Card since the registration exercise started in 2019.

Giving a breakdown of this figure, he said "15,963,571 cards have been printed so far (as of Wednesday, February 16, 2022), while 12,693,154 cards have been issued to their respective owners.

He said this on the Super Morning Show, on Thursday, February 17, 2022, during discussions on the ongoing Ghana Card registration exercise.

He revealed that the biggest obstacle the Authority is facing is the backlog of cards yet to be issued to their owners. Mr. Ganiyu said the Authority has in its possession over two million cards which are yet to get to their owners.

He explained that this is because "during the mass registration, there were quite a couple of cards that couldn't print while we were on the field.

"But when we came to the headquarters, we were able to print all of them and have sent them to our regional and district offices. But unfortunately, we still have a lot of these cards in our inventory and this comes as a cost to us," he added.

The introduction of the Ghana Card forms part of government's plans to develop one national identity card for all official purposes. This would reduce the multiple identity cards held by most Ghanaians, including the Voters ID, National Health Insurance card, passport, driver's license, etc, issued by various institutions, separately.

The government's target with this registration is therefore to eventually unify all these cards to become one major identity card.

The card is expected to serve among others, as e-passport and will be accepted for the registration of businesses in the country.

There is also an ongoing synchronisation of SIM cards with the Ghana Card to enable the National Communications Authority to gain access to accurate data to regulate activities of the telecommunications sector as well as allow the National Identification Authority to update its database.

It is on the back of these that Mr. Ganiyu entreated all Ghanaians to prioritise obtaining the Ghana Card, especially those who are yet to go for their cards. He said such persons can visit the NIA Regional or District offices in their communities for their cards.