News Guide Africa

Tag: NIA

  • SIM card registration: No extension of July 31 deadline as 12 million SIMs registered

    SIM card registration: No extension of July 31 deadline as 12 million SIMs registered

    Adnan Adams Mohammed

    The Minister for Communications and Digitalization has warned that the deadline for the registration of SIM cards in Ghana will not be extended for a second time.

    The exercise which began on 1st October, 2021, and originally scheduled to end on 31st March, 2022, was extended by the sector Ministry to 31st July, 2022, due to the fact that, over 7.5 million citizens and residents at the time, were yet to obtain their Ghana Card, to enable them register their SIM cards.

    According to the Minister over, 12 million Ghanaians have so far linked their Ghana Cards to their SIM Cards, against almost 16 million Ghanaians who have received their Ghana card as reported by the National Identification Authority.

    “I therefore take this opportunity to urge all those who’ve not registered their SIM cards to do so as the deadline of 31st July, 2022 will not be extended,”  Ursula Owusu-Ekuful stressed when speaking at a forum by the National Communications Authority (NCA) in Kumasi.

    She indicated that, the exercise will ultimately help build a credible and safe SIM Card database in Ghana.

    “Most people access their internet through their mobile devices. We must make sure that they do so safely. We must make it difficult for the criminals who hack our systems and defraud us through multiple online channels to operate, and this SIM registration exercise is one of the steps the government is taking in that regard. Essentially this stresses the point that this exercise will enable the establishment of a subscriber database with integrity to keep the consumers safe from scams and fraud.”

    The Ghana Card, which is the only source of Identification for the SIM registration, has been a hot cake in past months since the registration exercise begun.

    The issuing body of the Ghana Card, National Identification Authority (NIA), has indicated that, over 15.7 million Ghanaians current have received their Ghana cards.

    According to the Executive Secretary of , Prof. Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah, data available to him reveals that 16,969,034 persons have registered for the Ghana Card, with about 16,535,623 cards printed as of last week.

    However, he gave multiple reasons why some people who have registered have not been issued with their cards.

    “There are people who have double-registered. That is potentially a criminal offence. Those ones are being individually investigated. There are those whose cards have gone into adjudication, not because of double registration but because they have sought to change their vital data in the custody of the authority, such as bio-data. For such people, the system arrests their application, and it joins a queue.”

    “For such people, until the outstanding issues are rectified, they can’t receive their cards,” he added.

  • Issue Fulanis With The Ghana Card – Veep Directs NIA

    Issue Fulanis With The Ghana Card – Veep Directs NIA

    By Abubakar Garba Osuman

     The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has directed the National Identification Authority (NIA) to ensure Fulanis are captured and issued with the Ghana Card.

    Dr Bawumia made this known when he met the leadership of the National Council of Fulani Chiefs at the Jubilee House.

    According to the Vice President, the NIA will deploy its personnel to Fulani communities across the country to conduct the registration exercise. “We arrived at this arrangement when I recently met personnel of the NIA,” he explained.

    Dr Bawumia said that he has received several complaints from Fulanis of Ghanaian descent that whenever they apply for documents such as passport, Ghana Card, and even the National Health Insurance Card, they are denied. “It is time anomaly such as this is rectified once and for all,” he assured them.

    “When you have a Ghana Card your will have access to other documents such as passport,” he reiterated.

    The President of the National Council of Fulani Chiefs, Chief Iddrisu Bingle, said an issue of concern to them is the failure of personnel of some state institutions to accept Fulanis as an integral part of the Ghanaian society. It is on this ground that they are refused to be issued with national documents.

    He reiterated the fact that “the presence of our ancestors in the country dated back to over 300 years. And as part of their contribution to the development of the country, our forebears had served in the security agencies, some of them were also farmhands on cocoa plantations as well as unskilled labour in other sectors of the economy.”

    The leader of the Fulani therefore demanded the recognition of the roles their ancestors played in the development of the country.  

    “Not only that but we want to state that we are an integral part of the Ghanaian society. Because, apart from Ghana we have no place we call home,” Chief Bingle stated.

    Again, the Fulani leadership bemoaned how their people are attacked, maimed and killed. And in some situations, their villages burnt to ashes. “As for killing of cattle, it is a sad normal occurrence.”

    But the Fulani leadership admitted that, as any community of people, there are bad nuts among them. They thus expressed their readiness to collaborate with the security agencies in exposing perpetrators of criminal activities within their fold.  

    The Vice President however, assured them of the preparedness of the Government to ensure the security of every citizen.

    Dr Bawumia said that the former Emir of Kano, His Royal Highness Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, urged him to engage the Fulani in the country in order to address some concerns raised by the group.

    This took place when the former Emir of Kano called on the Vice President in Accra in December 2021.

    “It is therefore heart-warming to have the opportunity to meet with you today.” The Fulani, according to the Vice President, is the largest group in West Africa and are found in almost all countries in the sub-region, including Ghana.