Adnan Adams Mohammed
The National Identification Authority and the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) will from next week Monday, June 28, begin processes to merge all SSNIT members identification to the Ghana (NIA) card.
SSNIT contributors have therefore been given a time period starting from Monday, June 28 to the end of the year to update their Ghana card details with their SSNIT numbers.
This is part of government’s effort to embed all other forms identification of citizens and non-citizens in the country on the NIA card to facilitate easy access to services and convinience of holding one identity card instead of the numerous IDs and numbers.
“The plan is that by the end of this year, we would have merged all the numbers of our existing members and migrated them onto the NIA platform and that will enable us to ensure that the Ghana Card becomes the only accepted means of identification required for members to transact business with SSNIT, starting January 2022. So we have six months to go through this process,” The Director General of SSNIT, Dr. John Ofori Tenkorang, at a stakeholder meeting held in Accra stated.
The General Manager in charge of Management Information Systems at SSNIT, Godson Ladzekpo, outlined the processes Ghanaians would need to follow to have their SSNIT numbers merged with their Ghana card numbers.
“Dial *711*9# on any phone, whether Android or not. Select Option 1 which states that you want to merge your NIA and SSNIT numbers. Enter your 13-digit SSNIT number, then key in your NIA number. A message would pop up with your name. Select Option 1 to complete the merging of your SSNIT and NIA numbers. A message then pops up which tells you that the merger process is ongoing. If the process is successful, you would have a message sent to your e-mail,” he explained.
Members can also visit the SSNIT website to have their numbers merged.
The merger is also in compliance with Regulation 7 (1) of the National Identity Register Regulations, 2012, L.I. 2111 and a directive from the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA).
The intended merger is expected to improve the ease of doing business with the Trust by enabling a convenient means to allow members to use one card, that is the Ghana Card, for all transactions.
The regulation, among other things, requires the use of the Ghana Card as a means of identification for “transactions pertaining to individuals in respect of pensions”.
Speaking at the event, the Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour Awuah, remarked that “after the merger is done, I am optimistic it will bring down further the average 10 working days it takes for SSNIT to process and pay benefits to retirees”.
The government of Ghana, in pushing its digitalization agenda, has begun a series of synchronization processes to make the Ghana Card the sole source of identification for persons living in Ghana and for accessing public services in the country.
Already, the National Health Insurance Card has been integrated with the Ghana Card as part of the consolidation process.
Ghana Card holders can now use their cards to access health services at all NHIS accredited service providers across the country.
The government also announced a replacement of the Tax Identification Number, TIN, with the Ghana card number as part of efforts to identify and rope in more eligible taxpayers, especially those in the informal sector.
This process started on April 1, 2021, and is expected to see the country’s domestic revenues increase.
Additionally, the Ghana card now stands as the only form of identification being used for SIM card registration.
The newest development is the merger of Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) numbers onto the Ghana card.
