The National Identification Authority (NIA) has announced plans to begin the registration of individuals aged 6 to 14 to access the Ghana Card starting this September.

This new phase of the registration process comes after the successful enrollment of 18 million Ghanaians aged 15 and above.

According to the NIA, the decision to extend the Ghana Card registration to younger age groups marks a significant step in ensuring that all citizens are included in the national identification system.

The Authority has expressed confidence in its ability to manage the expanded registration process, having already achieved substantial coverage among those over 15 years old.

Executive Secretary of the NIA, Prof Kenneth Agyeman Attafuah, revealed that the initiative had undergone pilot testing in the Eastern and Central regions.

These trials, he noted, provided valuable insights and affirmed the NIA’s readiness to implement the programme on a nationwide scale.

With the pilot phase deemed successful, the NIA is now poised to roll out the registration process across the country, ensuring that children between the ages of 6 and 14 are included in the national database.

“We have started looking at Ghanaians aged between 6 and 14 years because the mass registration and the continuous registration captured Ghanaians 15 years and above."

“We are now turning our attention to those below the age of 16 and between July 20 and July 23, we piloted the registration of this cohort of the population in the Eastern region and the Central region, and based on that, we have learned some lessons and we are retooling our mechanism to begin the registration of this class of people.”