The National Identification Authority (NIA) says it has issued over 15.7 million Ghana Cards to Ghanaians. 

The Executive Secretary of the NIA, Prof. Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah, disclosed this on Thursday, July 21, on Accra-based Citi FM. 

Prof. Attafuah said data available states that 16,969,034 persons have registered for the Ghana Card, with about 16,535,623 cards printed.

Out of this number, Prof. Attafuah said 15,702,719 cards have been issued and 808,493 cards printed but not issued.

He, however, explained why some registrants have not been issued their cards.

“There are people who have double-registered. That is potentially a criminal offence. Those ones are being individually investigated. There are those whose cards have gone into adjudication, not because of double registration but because they have sought to change their vital data in the custody of the authority, such as bio-data.”

“For such people, the system arrests their application, and it joins a queue.”

The Executive Secretary said until such issues are addressed, those cards will not be issued. 

“For such people, until the outstanding issues are rectified, they can’t receive their cards,” he added.

The NIA recently dismissed the assertion that circulated on social media that some Ghana Cards have been left to ‘rot’ at the Sowotuom Office.

In a statement, the Authority explained that the said cards are 2D-barcode cards which were printed between 2008 and 2014 but were never issued to Ghanaians.

According to NIA, the abandoned cards have been audited and were awaiting destruction.

“The cards have been audited by an NIA Board of Survey and passed for destruction as they have outlived their 10-year life span and cannot be used for any lawful purpose.

“Stored in “Ghana-Must-Go’ bags, the cards were moved from storage to create space pending their destruction as the NIA Headquarters Building undergoes refurbishment.

“The cards were covered with a tarpaulin to the NIA Headquarters premises awaiting shredding but someone removed the cover, made a video and shared it on social media,” parts of the statement read.