The National Identification Authority (NIA) is set to begin the mass registration of qualified citizens residing in the Northern, North East and Savannah Regions onto the National Identity Register and issue them with the Ghana Card.

The mass registration exercise, which begins Friday and ends on October 23, will take place at 750 centres in all the districts in the three regions.

Executive Secretary of the NIA, Kenneth Attafuah, who announced this at a press briefing in Tamale on Thursday, said the mass registration for the Ghana Card would be conducted from 8:00am to 5:00pm each day excluding Sundays and public holidays.

Prof. Attafuah spoke about the mandatory requirements for the registration, which are a birth certificate or valid Ghana passport or certificate of citizenship and Ghana Post Digital Address.

He said those who did not have the mandatory documents, needed a relative issued with the Ghana Card, or two community members issued with the Ghana Card or serving or retired public servants, civil servants, the clergy amongst others to vouch for them to be registered.

The NIA has registered over 2.9 million eligible Ghanaians, printed 2.5 million cards in the Greater Accra, Volta and Oti Regions, since the mass registration exercise began in the country in April.

Prof. Attafuah spoke about the significance of the exercise and urged the citizenry to contribute to its success, saying it was one of the development projects for the country.

He emphasised that the mass registration exercise was non-political and not meant to give political advantage to any political party, urging the citizenry to trust in the exercise and take advantage to register.

Professor Attafuah said the NIA was determined to register all eligible citizens by the end of the year, adding that the NIA would open district offices from next year for citizens to go and register at their convenience in order to capture all eligible citizens.