Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, has described as unacceptable and disrespectful the huge number of people queuing to be registered for the Ghana card in the Northern Region.

The National Identification Authority (NIA) is undertaking registration of eligible Ghanaians and non-Ghanaians for the Ghana card.

The rollout of a mass registration and issuance of the Ghana Card has been marred by chaos and long queues across the country.

The discomfort has been compounded by the need to use the Ghana card for the registration of SIM cards, which ends on March 31, 2022.

Haruna Iddrisu, the Tamale South MP in the Northern Region, expressed disquiet over the long queues of residents going through the registration exercise.

During a visit to the Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium registration centre, the Minority Leader called on the NIA to create more registration centres to accommodate the huge number of people applying for the Ghana card.

"Why must people be subjected to this kind of stress and humiliation just to access a public good of a Ghana card?" he quizzed.

"Some of these hordes of people you are seeing this morning have been around the NIA registration since last night, and yet do not have the assurance of acquiring the ID card by close of the day. The people deserve better"

Meanwhile, the Authority has said that it will add additional registration points for the Ghana card from Monday, February 21 to March 31.

The centres will be at the Accra Sports Stadium, El-Wak Sports Stadium, Kumasi Sports Stadium, the Ghana National Fire Service Regional Office in Cape Coast, and the Tamale Sports Stadium.

“Apart from the El-Wak Sports Stadium, which will operate as a Premium Center, registration at all the other locations is free,” NIA announced in a statement.

According to the statement, these registration points will be open from 8 am to 5 pm, from Monday to Friday.

They will operate alongside NIA’s 276 District and 16 Regional offices.

“This intervention has been instituted in response to growing numbers of Ghanaians thronging NIA’s offices nationwide to register for the Ghana Card, particularly, as the deadline for Sim-Card re-registration approaches,” the NIA explained.