The attention of the National Identification Authority (NIA) has been drawn to a false statement contained in a Press Release issued by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) on 1st March 2023 by which it claimed that the Executive Secretary of NIA, Prof. Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah, on the ‘NewsFile’ Programme of 25th February 2023 said that “currently, about 2.5 million cards are yet to be printed”. This claim is false as Prof. Attafuah never said so. For the avoidance of doubt, the NIA wishes to correct the false statement attributed to the Executive Secretary as follows:
1. Prof. Attafuah stated on the said ‘NewsFile’ Programme that “there are 541, 529 cards that are not yet printed. That is, they are ready to print but have not been printed”’;
2. The 2.5 million stated by the NDC rather represents the number of Ghanaians aged 15 years and above who are yet to be registered onto the National Identity Register (NIR), out of the current population of Ghana which stands at 31million as per the results of the Ghana Statistical Service 2020 Population and Housing Census.
NIA wishes to use this opportunity to assure the general public that:
1. Out of the 17,375,861 Ghanaians aged 15 years and above registered onto the National Identity Register (NIR) as at 19th February 2023, only 541,529 cards are yet to be printed, and not 2.5 million cards as claimed by the NDC.
2. Cards which have not been printed will be printed shortly and distributed to its 16 Regional Offices and 276 District Offices for issuance to applicants.
3. The NIA is ready to issue the backlog of printed cards totalling 642,403 from the mass registration period and which are at its 16 Regional Offices and 276 District Offices nationwide. Applicants who have not yet gone for their cards are urged to do so. Persons who are unable to locate their Regional or District Offices may call NIA on 0302 999 306 or chat with NIA on WhatsApp number 0203 228 394 for assistance.
End.
4 th March 2023
CORPORATE AFFAIRS DIRECTORATE