The Ghana Card
Since the Supreme Court of Ghana in its ruling that excluded the use of the voter ID as proof of eligibility for a voter's card before the last elections and the dismissal of the birth certificate as proof of Ghanaian citizenship, the Ghana card has been accepted as the only identify the document in many instances. The Supreme Court ruled that the birth certificate does not establish the identity of the bearer nor does it link the holder with the information on the certificate.
The irony here is that the birth certificate which was not recognized by the Supreme Court was used to get the Ghana card in many instances but the same has been rendered useless given the Supreme Court ruling. Since that time, the Ghana card has become the only acceptable identity document. In the recent registration of the SIM card, the only identity document accepted was the Ghana card. Early in January this year, the Bank of Ghana in a release said effective July 01, 2022, the Ghana Card will be the only identity document to be used to undertake transactions at all Bank of Ghana licensed and regulated financial institutions.
Since the above situations came into place, there have been many questions that need some answers especially from the Ghanaian community in the diaspora. In the first place, when the NIA was issuing out the Ghana card, no provision was made concerning how the millions of Ghanaians in the diaspora could get their Ghana card. In plain language, the Ghanaian in the diaspora was not factored into the equation as far as the acquisition of the card was concerned and here we are, it is being used as the only identity card acceptable in the country. With this situation that confronts those of us in the diaspora, we need answers to the following scenario that confronts the Ghanaian in the diaspora:
a. If a Ghanaian in the diaspora who was not issued with a Ghana card comes to Ghana and wants to get a phone, how can that person gets a SIM card so that he or she can get his phone? Don’t tell me that a relative of that individual can get him a SIM card to enable him to get a phone number.
b. If the same Ghanaian wants to transact financial business after the Bank of Ghana given deadline, without the Ghana card, how is the person going to do that financial transaction? What is even worse is that some of us have existing bank accounts in Ghana and without the Ghana card, how do we access those accounts?
Considering the above, can we say that the policymakers in Ghana think about the Ghanaians in the diaspora? How can a group of people that sends down billions of dollars yearly to support the economy be left out in such an important policy? When the NIA was registering Ghanaians for the Ghana card, one would have expected that provision could have been made for us and that they could have devised a means to capture those of us in the diaspora. That was not done and here we are, we cannot register for a telephone when we go to Ghana nor can we transact any financial business with any Bank of Ghana licensed institution after the BOG deadline.
The question on the lips of many in the diaspora is why are we not accepting other identification documents like passports? Every Ghanaian in the diaspora who comes to Ghana has a valid passport either from his or her country of residence or that of Ghana. So what prevents the Ghana government to accept our passports as an identity document? If our passports are accepted at the Kotaka International airport as an identity upon our arrival, what prevents the same document to be accepted when we want to get our SIM card or transact financial business?
Some of us don’t want to believe that the policymakers in the country are only interested in our money but when it comes to our welfare, there is no place for us. During President Kuffour’s time, much noise was made about ROPA and it has just been lip service because successive governments have done nothing to allow Ghanaians in the diaspora to vote. Even now some of us are treated in our respective embassies leaves much to be desired. I know many of us in the diaspora are eager to contribute our quota to the development of our motherland, it is, therefore, disheartening to note that our policymakers don’t think about us when it comes to policymaking.
If they knew that they were going to make the Ghana card the only acceptable identity, why didn’t they make provision to register us when the NIA was doing the registration in Ghana? Couldn’t they have used our embassies to register us so that we wouldn’t have been where we are today as far as the use of the Ghana card is concerned? Despite the many calls from many of us in the diaspora concerning the use of the Ghana card, there seems to be no effort from the government to correct the situation making it easier for us to get means of getting phones and transact financial business in Ghana.
I know many friends who came to Ghana during the Christmas holidays and they found it difficult to get their phone because they didn’t have the Ghana card and as a result, they couldn’t get the SIM card that would have enabled them to get their phones. In those circumstances, they have to rely on friends and family members to use their Ghana cards to get the phones. Are the Ghanaians in the diaspora second-grade citizens? The last group of people that our policymakers think about when it comes to policy initiatives is the Ghanaians in the diaspora and yet they are the very group that these politicians rely on for financial support during their electioneering campaign.
Some of us want answers as to how we can access government services when we come to Ghana especially those services that require the use of the Ghana Card. I hope the next time I come to Ghana, there will be a system in place to make it easier for me to transact financial business in a BOG licensed financial institution and also get my SIM card for my phone, until then, let us knock at the doors of the powers that be and tell them that we are also part of the greater Ghanaian community.