The National Identification Authority (NIA), has announced that citizens who are yet to receive their Ghana cards would be able to do so from June 2021.
“What the Authority has decided is that we are going to print these cards so that by June when we are able to open our regional and district offices, we will be able to push these cards to those offices then we can issue a statement to the effect that people can go to the regional and district offices to get their cards. So we can only count on the patience of the people that latest by June we will be able to get the cards into the system.”
The Ghana card registration commenced in April 2019.
The exercise was piloted in the Greater Accra Region and later rolled out in the other 15 regions.
It was suspended during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic but resumed after the restrictions were eased.
Some Ghanaians have complained about their inability to access the card several months after the mass registration exercise ended.
“I went to register at Laterbiokoshie and I was told I would be called for my card, but I haven’t heard anything on that yet. I believe since they have my contact details, they would call me when the card is ready or perhaps find a way to explain why my card might not be ready,” a citizen bemoaned.
Another Ghanaian stated that “I went there about a week ago, but I didn’t get it. They said the system wasn’t picking some of my details so I’m still following up.”
The Authority however says it is working to issue the cards.
The Deputy Head of Corporate Affairs at the NIA, Abudu Abdul Ganiu explained that “everything went on well with the registration but the only thing slowing the exercise is the printing of the cards. We told the people that we were having issues, so we had to come to the office and adjudicate on some of those issues so that if there were issues with the person’s age or name where inconsistencies were generated in the data that individuals gave to us, the issues are adjudicated at the backend and that was what took time,” he stated.
TINs, SSNIT numbers to be phased out gradually
This comes on the back of a directive by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo that all National Identification numbers will become Tax Identification Numbers [TINs] from April 1, 2021.
Speaking in Parliament during the State of the Nation Address earlier in March 2021, President Akufo-Addo said: “Mr. Speaker for the first time, we have enrolled 15.5 million people onto the National Identity System [Ghana Card] and we will complete the process this year. From April 1, 2021, all National identification numbers will become Tax Identification Numbers [TINs]. In so doing, the number of persons registered by GRA for tax purposes will increase from the current three million to 15.5 million,” said the President.
Ghana Card, TIN required for registration of new companies — Registrar General
For this reason, the Registrar-General’s Department (RGD) subsequently said effective Thursday, April 1, 2021, all clients registering new companies would be required to provide both their National Identification Number and the Tax Identification Number for the process.
A statement signed by Mrs. Jemima Oware, the Registrar-General, said the TIN would only be generated in the RGD offices temporarily in the transitional period, which ends on April 30, 2021.
Source: citinewsroom.com
