Effective House Numbering And Street Naming (Digital Address System); A Pre-reqiusite For A Modern And Standard National Identification Cards

The National Identification Authority (NIA) was set up in 2003 under the Office of the President, H. E. J. A kuffour with the mandate to issue national ID cards and manage the National Identification System (NIS).

This resulted in the passing of the NIA Act, 2006 (Act 707) to give it the necessary legal premises on which to operate. The National Identity Register Act, 2008 (Act 750) was also passed to give authorisation for collection of personal and biometric data and to ensure the protection of privacy and personal information of enrolees.

The full mandate of the NIA included the establishment of a national data centre so as to manage a national database, as well as to set up a system to collect, process, store, retrieve and disseminate personal data on the population (Ghanaian citizens – both resident and non-resident, and legally and permanently resident foreign nationals), ensure the accuracy, integrity and security of such data, and to issue and promote the use of national identity cards in Ghana.

Amongst other objectives of the Ghana card when issued were to provide enormous benefit in the areas of health delivery, passport acquisition, acquisition of drivers license , banking transactions, registration of business, credit information , disaster management and electoral registration.

This vision although has had some modifications, was conceived since 1973. It was discontinued after three years of operation due to logistics and financial challenge. It was revisited in 1987 with the establishment of committees to see to its successful implementation but again, economic difficulties crushed the whole process.

The Kuffour government revisited it again and took it to steps further but could not complete the distribution of cards before they lost power in 2008. It is worth mentioning that although directors were appointed to head the authority during the eight year rule of John Mills and John Mahama, little was heard of National Identification Authority during their term of office. Obviously it was not a priority of the government.

The need for a national identification card dominated discussions in Ghana again after the 2012 protracted Supreme Court election petition. Also from 2014 through to 2016, after series of court issues and verdicts, it became clear that we needed a clean voters’ register. Series of demonstrations were organized for the need to have a clean voters’ register and some political parties proposed that the only way we could raid our voters’ register of foreigners and infants was to have a national identification data from which the electoral register could be drawn.

In the run-up to the 2016 general election, the NPP made promises to revive the inactive National Identification Authority by committing resources to the authority to make it run smoothly to deliver on its mandate. The revival of the NIA got a place in the manifesto of the NPP and the then Vice Presidential Candidate made a lot of economic arguments for the National Identification Authority to be up and doing and therefore promised to fix the problems of the authority and get it running effectively/efficiently in the first year of their administration should they win.

At a broad consultative meeting chaired by the Vice President, Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, two weeks after taking power, on Wednesday, January 25, 2017,all the major stakeholders, including the Births and Deaths Registry (BDR), National Identification Authority (NIA), Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Ghana Revenue Authority and National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) underscored the need to have a single national database to aid policy planning and implementation.

Also in attendance were Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Electoral Commission (EC), Driver Vehicle and Licence Authority (DVLA), Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems Limited (GHIPSS) and industry experts.

The NPP government is convinced that, the National ID scheme would help formalize the economy through the establishment of a national database, using the National Identification System as the primary identifier, with linkages to the databases of institutions such as the Police, National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Passport Office, Immigration, Courts, Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA).

The Vice President stated publicly that the NIA has been given up to September 2017 to begin issuing cards to Ghanaians.

It is in this light of timeline given to the NIA, that, Eagle Eye International (EEI) is concerned. We believe that more time is needed to fix the basics first before the national registration/reregistration/card issuance process starts. In fixing the basics some questions need to be answered to provide a strong foundation for a successful registration and issuance of national identification cards.

One fundamental and important question which remains unanswered is whether or not the new card would incorporate the digital address system. This important question seems to have lost in our discussions leading to having one of the best identification cards in the world. A national identification card that does not have details of where card bearers stay and/work, their streets names and properties is in our view not what we want as a country.

If we really want to reduce crime, reduce loan default rate and increase government revenue then we should complete the digital address system and get street names and house numbers as well as property registry done before we proceed to start discussions about having identification cards.

We should not rush and waste resources to produce substandard cards like we did in the past but rather continue the consultation broadly in orderto reap all the benefits of a modern identification card.

We wish to commend the Akuffo Addo’s administration for its zeal to restore hope and improve upon the economic misfortunes of Ghana through an effective independent state institutions like the NIA.

#CompleteDigitalAddressSystemBeforeIssueingNationalCards

Thank you.
SDG
EAGLE EYE INTERNATIONAL
Quarshie Egyer Joseph
+233 (0) 245607479
Seth Adu-Adjei
+233 (0) 244702074
Frank Osei Yeboah
+233 (0) 242028199
Isaac Antwi
+233 (0) 244678746