NIA Gets GHc2.5m For Registration Exercise

The government has released GH¢2.5 million to the National Identification Authority (NIA) to conclude the mass registration exercise in the Brong Ahafo Region.

The money will also be used for the distribution of national identity cards in the Greater Accra Region and pay outstanding allowances due personnel of the NIA who were engaged in prior registration exercises in the Ashanti Region in 2010 and parts of the Brong Ahafo Region.

The Public Relations Officer of the NIA, Ms Bertha Dzeble, who disclosed this to the Daily Graphic in Accra Thursday, said securing the money was significant, since the authority could not undertake any mass registration last year because of the lack of funds.

Already, she said, the authority had between 1,300 and 1,500 mobile registration workstation officers to carry out the exercise, which is likely to resume on February 15, this year.

Ms Dzeble said what would be required was the training of registration officers and assistants, as was done for the other regions.

The lack of funds, she said, had been a serious challenge to the NIA and added that the money received would go a long way to enable the authority to carry out its activities.

The mass registration exercise to establish a national register of the identities of all resident and non-resident Ghanaians of six years and above, as well as foreign nationals legally resident in the country, began in the Central Region on July 1, 2008.

It has also been conducted in the Western, Volta and the Eastern regions.