Financial institutions encouraged by NIA to give priority to Ghana Card identification
The National Identification Authority (NIA) is encouraging financial institutions to give priority to user verification using the Ghana Card for all transactions.
Professor Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah, the Executive Secretary of the NIA, made this call during the National Identity Day, an event aimed at raising awareness about the importance of legal identity, aligning with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 16.9.
Professor Attafuah emphasized that implementing this measure would play a pivotal role in reducing the increasing incidents of fraud within the sector.
He stated, “We have unbounded all the 25 universal banks and 125 rural banks, all the telcos. All these institutions are properly positioned to verify identification, verification is the confirmation that the right thing has been done.
“That is why the banks must verify. The banks failed to verify the identities, simply make a photocopy of the person’s ID Card, they lost 162 million through fraud, that wouldn’t have happened if the banks verified.”
On September 4, 2023, the NIA commenced Phase II of the Ghana Card registration for new applicants. This followed the NIA’s discontinuation of the first phase of registration, which was specifically for public sector workers on the government payroll.
The NIA cited low turnout by public sector workers as the reason for truncating the first phase of registration.
In a statement, the NIA explained that Phase I was based on figures provided by the Controller and Accountant General’s Department, estimating that 250,000 to 260,000 public sector workers did not have the cards.
