Ghana’s most influential radio station, Citi FM, in collaboration with the World Bank, will today [Thursday] hold a roundtable discussion on the need to integrate the various statutory identification cards.
The theme for the programme is “National Identification: A Panacea for Ghana’s social, economic and political development.”
Key speakers include Prof. Ernest Dumor, Former National Identification Authority head, Bright Simons, Honorary Vice President of IMANI Ghana and President of mPedigree, with contributions from key related agencies.
Other speakers for the event includes Dorothy K. Gordon, Director-General, Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT, Kwaku Sakyi Addo, CEO of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunication, Moses Baiden, CEO of Identity Management System (IMS) as well as representatives from the Integrated Social Development Center (ISODEC).
The event comes off at the World Bank office in Accra and will be live on 97.3 Citi FM at 2:30pm.
Background:
Ghana population has grown by over 300% after independence but there is no proper record of the over 27 million Ghanaians and expatriates living in the country.
This has resulted in the poor delivery of social services and inefficiency in planning and implementation.
The average Ghanaian is expected to have the following statutory identification documents before accessing some services and rights:
- Birth
- Passport
- E-zwich card
- Health Insurance card
- Voter’s ID
- Drivers license
- The National ID card
- Social Security ID
The situation has resulted in a lot of unnecessary expenditure on the country’s budget due to the fact that different statutory agencies are spending huge sums to capture their own data and provide IDs for their sector’s specific activities.
In April 2014, President Johnn Mahama tasked the various state agencies to integrate the various statutory cards.
According to the President “every Ghanaian walking today carries many ID cards in his pocket. You carry your National ID card, you carry your voters ID card, you carry NHIS card, you carry your SSNIT card, you carry your bank card, in fact multiple cards. Why can’t we have one card that covers everything?”
Meanwhile, almost two years on, the situation remains the same.
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By: citifmonline.com/Ghana