The Minister for the Interior, Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak, has disclosed that more than 200,000 eligible children in the Volta Region are yet to be registered under the ongoing National Identification Authority (NIA) mass registration exercise for children aged six to 14 years. 

The minister disclosed during a meeting with chiefs of the Asogli State in Ho as part of his two-day working visit to the region. 

He said that although the exercise had recorded encouraging results, the number of children registered so far fell short of the target set by the Authority. 

Mr. Mohammed-Mubarak explained that the NIA had projected to register over 300,000 children in the region during the first phase of the exercise. 

“After the three-week registration exercise, we have been able to register a little over 108,000 children. This means that more than 200,000 eligible children are yet to be captured,” he stated. 

The minister said the government remained committed to ensuring that every child within the target age group was enrolled in the national identification database and would intensify efforts to reach those not captured during the initial exercise. 

“We will return to undertake a mop-up exercise, but that alone will not be enough. We will draw up another timetable and come back, possibly for another three weeks, to ensure that we cover almost every eligible child,” he said. 

Mr. Mohammed-Mubarak noted that the registration of children onto the national database was critical to effective national planning, service delivery, and identity management. 

He explained that enrolling children at an early age would facilitate access to public services and ensure accurate records were available when they later sought employment, admission into the security services, or other national opportunities. 

The minister stressed that the initiative formed part of the government’s broader efforts to build a comprehensive and reliable national identification system. 

Earlier in May, the NIA launched a mass registration exercise for children aged between six and 14 years in the Volta and Oti regions, as part of a nationwide rollout aimed at expanding the country’s national identification database.