The Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Professor Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah, has said that his outfit cannot be blamed for the non-issuance of Ghana Card to some Ghanaians.
According to him, the NIA is committed to serving and has successfully registered the majority of the people to the Ghana Identity register as well as issued them Ghana cards.
Hundreds of people thronged to the premises of the NIA to register and receive their Ghana cards to enable them re-register their mobile SIM cards.
New applicants struggled in long queues to get the Ghana Card by the close of the day to meet the deadline by the telecommunication companies.
Reacting to the development, Prof. Ken Attafuah said, “Broad majority of Ghanaians who are thronging our offices cannot rightfully blame us because we did not fail to make our services available to them.
“When they had registered, some of them elected not to go for their cards, and we still have over 651,000 cards with NIA because the owners had not gone for them,” he reiterated.
He entreated the public to cooperate with NIA by visiting their offices across the country to register or receive their Ghana cards.
Over 7.4 million SIM cards yet to be re-registered with the Ghana Card risk deactivation by the National Communication Authority (NCA).
According to the Chamber of Telecommunications, this figure includes SIM Cards that have gone through only one stage of the registration process and those that have not been linked to the Ghana Card.
Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber of Telecommunications, Dr Ken Ashigbey, said the 7.4 million would not be able to make phone calls, SMS, or do any financial transactions.
However, he explained that persons with legitimate claims can “reach out to the NCA, and the NCA will then look into your case and then ask the telcos to whitelist your number and then your number will not be blocked.”
