NIA to pilot Ghana Card registration programme for Ghanaians in the diaspora

The National Identifications Authority (NIA) has announced the beginning of the registration of Ghanaians living abroad, as stipulated in the NIA Act, 2008 (Act 750) through the Ghana High Commission.

The pilot exercise will first be carried out in Ottawa, Canada, where a team of 10 people will be sent to lead the process.

According to Professor Ken Attafuah, the Executive Secretary of NIA, the team will leave Ghana to commence the registration work but also train the officials at the Ghana mission in Ottawa to be able to continue with the registration exercise.

“We chose Ottawa, Canada, for a strategic reason, we wanted a place where we will test the technical system that we designed in partnership with our technical partners,” he said.

Some of the pilot projects will be in Toronto, Washington, and New Jersey, and it wants to involve all the diplomatic missions of Ghana across the world to be registration centres. It will work with mission staff who have already received training regarding the registration process. The NIA shall deploy MRWs to the various missions to carry out the exercise.

The NIA has since last year been working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on a full roadmap for this project. Public sensitization will also be part of the piloting to ensure that Ghanaians living abroad are informed.

Professor Attafuah conveyed this to the Assurances Committee of Parliament on Monday, August 26, 2024, August 26, 2024, and stressed that the NIA was bent on ensuring the full realization of its mandate under Act 750.