The National Identification Authority (NIA) has announced it will commence a mop-up exercise for the Ghana Card registration in the Volta and Greater Accra regions after it fell short of meeting its target.
The Authority said it was not in a position to discriminate against any Ghanaian for any political reason and will “not in any way by our action and inaction try to exclude some people”.
Head of Public Affairs at the NIA Francis Palmdeti, who announced this in interview on TV3, noted that the Authority had met to consider the concerns of some people in the Volta Region and that plans were advanced to mop up the exercise.
The mop-up has become necessary after several citizens in the Volta Region were not able to register.
“We will be doing a mop-up in the Volta Region. The centers will be opened for card issuance till the 19th of August so those who don’t have the cards can go for it.
“After the 19th we will shut down, but by the 29th,[of August] plans are advanced to have new centers opened, purposely to register those who did not register. We will site those centers at places where we know we had problems,” he said.
He added, “Shia, Klave and other communities will also be taken care of just as any other communities which did not have adequate time to get their residence registered.”
He revealed that a similar exercise was in the offing for the Greater Accra Region after only 65% (20% short) of the targeted population were able to register.
Mr. Palmdeti stated that the nation needed a credible register “that captures and reflect” the number of people in the country.
“It is our intention to register everybody. In mass registration phase, you will not capture everybody. The law required us to put in centers in every district after we are done with the mass registration.”
By Paul Selorm Agbo| 3news.com| Ghana