NIA holds training workshop ahead of mass registration in W/R

The National Identification Authority (NIA) has held a workshop for public service staff ahead of the Ghana card mass registration exercise in the Western Regional capital, Sekondi-Takoradi.

Participants at the programme held at the Takoradi Technical University included personnel from the Information Service Department at the Municipal and District Assemblies, National Commission for Civic Education and the Ghana Police Service.

Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority Prof. Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah addressing the public service workers, revealed that the NIA employ 8,000 officials made up of about 4,000 local indigenes and trained for the exercise slated for Monday 27th January 2020.

According to him it is important that every Ghanaian living within the country and abroad is captured in the National Identification System. He said citizens who are aged zero and above are entitled to be issued with a national ID card as required by law.

The Ghana Card is meant to provide added convenience and ease when conducting business with public sector institutions, Civil Society Organization and the private sector. The NIA hopes to register about 80 percent of Ghanaians from the age of 15 years to the aged in the going mass registration exercise across the country.

The NIA Executive Secretary announced that children below the ages of 14 years would be registered in basic schools, Day Care Centers, Maternity Wards among others after similar exercise in the Eastern region in March 2020.

The training workshop was intended to equip public service workers with the requisite information for public education and also be well informed on the identification card registration that is to be held in the Central, Western and Western-North regions.

The National Identification Authority will issue 3 main types of cards namely the Dual Interface Smart Card ‘ Ghanaians 15 years and above’, 2D Bar code “Ghanaians 14 years and below” and Foreign Identification and Management System Card ‘Foreigners’

Story By: BENJAMIN BRAY-TAKORADI