NIA expresses gratitude to Ex-President Kufuor

The National Identification Authority (NIA) has observed with gratitude, media reports to the effect that Ex-President John. A. Kufuor call on all Ghanaians to avail themselves for registration and issuance of the Ghana Card.

The NIA in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency welcomed his unqualified endorsement of the registration exercise and his clear rejection of the boycott by the Minority in Parliament.

It noted that the Ex-President’s call underscored the importance of the National Identification System to effective identity verification and planning, and in accelerating the course of our Nation’s economic, social and political development.

The statement said the NIA had taken note of Ex-President Kufuor’s comment on the exclusion of the voter’s ID card as one of the identity documents required by an applicant for registration for the Ghana Card.

It said, the NIA, as a creature of statute, would continue to be governed by, and respect, the existing laws passed by Parliament.

The statement said in exercising its statutory mandate, the NIA was determined to ensure that every Ghanaian at home and abroad was duly registered and issued with the Ghana Card, while at the same time doing all in its power to protect the boundaries of Ghanaian citizenship and the accuracy and integrity of the National Identity Register as by law required.

It said NIA had pointed out time and again, those Ghanaians who lacked any of the prescribed identity documents could be registered by being vouched for in accordance with the law, at no cost to them.

The statement said it was absolutely no intention on NIA’s part to disenfranchise or denationalise any Ghanaian.

It said the National Identity Register being compiled by the NIA was not a substitute for the Voter’s Register, which the Electoral Commission alone was by law mandated to compile, and the Ghana Card was not a substitute for the Voter’s Identity Card.

Source: GNA