Mills Registers for National ID Card

March 1, 2010

By Edmund Mingle

President John Evans Atta Mills has registered for the National Identification card, with a call for all to take the exercise very serious.

He said the NI, which is intended to provide unique identification to all Ghanaians, was very crucial in the country’s development process.

“This should solve all kinds of problems related to identification,” he said as he finished the registration process at the Castle Gardens on Friday.

The President, who begun the process at 10:05am, encouraged all those who have not registered to do so.

He commended the National Identification Authority (NIA), managers of the exercise for the progress made so far, and assured the Authority of the necessary support to ensure its success.

Dr. William Ahadzie, Executive Director of the Authority, who briefing the President on the progress of the exercise, said they were currently doing a mopping up exercise in Greater Accra, after the mass registration ended on February 11.

From Greater Accra, he said the exercise would conducted in the Ashanti Region from March 22 to June.

So far, he said the five regions, made up of Central, Western, Eastern, Volta and Greater Accra have been covered by the exercise, which begun in July 2008, but was suspended due to logistical difficulties.

Dr. Ahadzie later told newsmen that the turn out has so far been encouraging.
He said their main challenge was the long queues created at the registration centres, saying many people joined the queues without adequate knowledge about the exercise.

In that regard, he said the Authority was undertaking a conducting public education campaign in the remaining regions to be covered to inform people about the registration dates and the information they would be required to provide at the centres.