Ghana Card fiasco: I suspect sabotage – Franklin Cudjoe

President of IMANI Africa Franklin Cudjoe says he suspects the failure of the National Identification Authority (NIA) to meet the timeliness for the commencement of registrations and issuance of the much talked about Ghana Card was as a result of “sabotage.”

“I feel that there may be some form of sabotage going on with the Ghana Card,” he stated Saturday on Citi FM’s current affairs programme—the Big Issue.

Mr. Cudjoe’s comments re-echo the position held by the CEO of the NIA Professor Ken Attafuah following the Authority’s inability to deliver on the instant registration and issuance of the Ghana Card otherwise known as National Identification Card.

“It’s not an impossibility,” stated Professor Attafuah on Monday, adding “…people might or someone might just want to do something funny.”

“We dotted our Is and crossed our Ts to make sure that things will work well and for some inexplicable reason we have been disappointed,” he stressed on Joy FM.

Hundreds of officers who gathered at selected centres to get their National ID Card from key state institutions including Jubilee House were left stranded and disappointed after officers of the NIA failed to turn up for the registration exercise.

Apology

The NIA in a statement also suggested that its system suffered a “technical hitch” affecting the Authority’s ability to commence the rollout of the Ghana card as scheduled.



It has, therefore “unreservedly” apologised to the personnel of the Jubilee House, Judicial Service, Ministry of Defence, National Security and the BNI for the inconvenience caused. The rest are; MOFARI (Research Dept), Ghana Police Service, Ghana Immigration Service, Ghana Prison Service and Ghana National Fire Service.

Its technical team, it assured “is working fervently to resolve the issue for registration to begin” suspending the registration until the problem is completely resolved.

The government of Ghana is contributing $531 million of the total $1.2 billion cost, while Identity Management System (IMS), which is partnering the NIA under a public/private partnership (PPP) agreement, will provide $678million for the exercise.

The issuance of a National Identification ID card is among the few key projects the government promised to execute to formalise the country’s economy.