18.7 million Ghana Cards issued, 200 million checks done, NIA says ID now works at 44,000 airports worldwide.
The Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Wisdom Kwaku Deku, has said the Ghana Card has significantly improved identity verification and inclusion in Ghana while gaining growing recognition across the ECOWAS sub-region and internationally. Speaking at the NIA’s 20th anniversary celebration, he disclosed that the Authority has registered over 19.4 million Ghanaians aged 15 and above and issued more than 18.7 million Ghana Cards, alongside enrolment of over 229,000 foreign nationals. He added that the Ghana Card is now accepted as a valid travel document within ECOWAS and recognised at more than 44,000 airports globally, while the NIA’s biometric verification system has processed over 200 million successful checks. Mr Deku also announced the resumption of nationwide registration for children aged six to 14, with over 90,000 already registered in the Volta and Oti regions, and noted that proposed amendments before Parliament aim to make biometric verification mandatory for transactions to strengthen the national identity system.
