The National Identification Authority (NIA), has revealed it has registered and issued over 124,000 Ghana cards in the Adentan Municipality after a three-week exercise in the Municipality.
The Head of Corporate Affairs at NIA, Francis Palmdeti, has revealed in a media interview that by the close of the exercise on Wednesday, November 28, 2018, the number registered had exceeded the expected target of 78,000.
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“As at close of work on Wednesday, we had registered 124,162 people in Adentan. We just observed from the data we have received that we have exceeded our target. We were considering the census figures of 2010 with some plus or minuses,” he explained.
“We felt that considering the size of Adentan and having a lot of working people in that area we may not hit our target. We put it at 78,000 but what we have now is way above our target,” he added.
The figure shows a sharp increase in the 2010 Population Census which pegged the population of Adentan at 78,215.
As to what may have caused the upsurge in the population of Adentan, Palmdeti said it may be as a result of the fast developing areas within the municipality.
“We noticed that in Adentan there are some new areas developing very fast. For instance, Kooseh is a fast developing area; Nmai Dzorn is also one of the fast developing areas,” he explained.
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The Ghana card Registration began in Adentan on November 5, 2018, amidst some technical challenges as well as issues with digital address codes which are a requirement for the registration.
The NIA, however, extended the registration exercise by three more days and ended on Wednesday, November 28, 2018.
NIA is expected to move to other areas beginning with La Nkwantanang/Madina Municipality from 3rd-22nd December 2018.
The Head of Corporate Affairs at NIA noted that one centre will continue to operate at Adentan to issue unclaimed cards and also register new entrants who could not register within the three-week window.
The NIA, prior to the exercise at Adentan, registered officials at the Presidency, Parliament, former presidents excluding John Mahama as well as some government institutions, giving out over 80,000 cards.
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Ghanaians are expected to provide either a birth certificate or a valid passport for the registration of the Ghana card.
However, people without these necessary documents are expected to bring along relatives who have already registered for the card to vouch under an oath or two people who may know them and can attest to the fact that they do not have the documents to vouch for them under oath.