Ghanaians to use National ID cards as voter identification soon – Bawumia

Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has said that the introduction of the National Identification Card will soon erase all arguments about the use of voters’ register for elections in the country.

Speaking at the 88th Annual National Convention of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission in Gomoa Pomadze in the Central Region, Dr. Bawumia indicated that the completion of the National Identification database will also save the nation money.

“One of the beautiful things about the National ID card registration is that after it is done this year, we will no longer have any argument about the voters’ register anymore because the National ID will be the voters’ register and nobody will go and do voters’ registration because when it is time for voting, EC will just extract the data of anybody who is above 18 from the national ID database. So it will save us money in these registrations which are expensive. But, for us, this is the last time we going to get involved in the election registration.”

He again added that digitization will be introduced at the Lands Commission to tackle the high levels of corruption that characterize land registration and acquisition.

“Also, the NHIA is not going to be issuing out NHIS cards because the National ID card can also act as your NHIS card. We are introducing digitization at the Lands Registry because of the corruption there. But we have begun a process to digitize land registration which will become a major breakthrough in the country”, he added.

Dr. Bawumia has always maintained that with digitization, government will be introducing new, and more efficient ways of doing business to help attract investors.

He believes that the instant issuance of biometric ID cards will serve as the bedrock for all digital initiatives such as tax collection and business registration.

‘Ghana card has come to stay no matter the resistance’ – Bawumia

The National Identification Authority started rolling out the Ghana cards earlier in 2018 beginning with the Presidency, Parliament and some selected dignitaries and institutions.

The mass registration exercise which took place in some parts of the country was not without technical challenges and concerns from the citizenry.

Dr. Bawumia has always taken on critics of the National Identification card also known as Ghana card, saying their criticisms won’t force the government to halt the process which has already begun.