Member of Parliament (MP) for Kintampo North, Joseph Kwame Kumah
Joseph Kwame Kumah, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kintampo North Constituency, has said Ghana will lose if the government fails to ensure all Ghanaians are registered on the National Identification Authority data.
According to him, not all Ghanaians have registered for the Ghana card because the government and the NIA have deliberately denied legitimate people the National Identification card across the country.
He further stressed that the government failing to ensure every Ghanaian gets the Ghana card will slow down businesses because people without the Ghana card cannot do bank transactions, which will negatively impact the Ghanaian economy.
Hon Joseph Kwame Kumah tasked the government and the National Identification Authority to put together efficient measures to make sure that they enroll every Ghanaian onto the National Identification Authority database.
Speaking with the Fulani Community in Kintampo in a ceremony to enskin Chief Ledibo as their chief, he indicated that it would be wrong for any person to deny a Fulani whose ancestors have all lived in Ghana these years any form of identification as a Ghanaian.
"Another issue is about inadequate printing materials for those who even come to register for the Ghana card.
Some Municipalities have registered about 1500 qualified people out of this number, only 300 printing cards are received which is very bad and there are lots of backlogs which is not helping at all," he added.
"Some people who have not received their cards always go and come to which is becoming too much and not helping productivity."
The MP further reiterated that "the issue is what benefit is it to a nation if we deny others their identification and when those very people perpetuate crime, how would we be able to identify them?
He, therefore, suggested it would be better to have all persons captured for security reasons and for the fact that the universal usage of the Ghana Card has become important in accounting transaction purposes, SIM re-registration, and voting purposes. As such, the country stands to lose greatly if some people are denied of Ghana card."