The National Identification Authority (NIA) says it cannot guarantee that all citizens seeking to acquire their Ghana cards will receive them by September 30.
According to the Executive Secretary, Prof. Kenneth Attafuah, the best NIA can do is to expand its services but it is not possible for all outstanding cards to be made available.
“We will continue to expand opportunities for all who desire to get the card by the deadline but we cannot guarantee it will all be granted.
“We will serve the people as the responsible institution we are and continue to collaborate with the NCA,” he said in an interview on Accra-based TV3.
This follows the extension of deadline for the SIM card re-registration exercise from July 31 to September 30, 2022.
With the Ghana card as the primary document for the nationwide exercise, majority of Ghanaians are still yet to acquire them.
The situation Minister for Communications and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful on Sunday indicated compelled her to “reluctantly” extend the deadline to enable people register their SIM cards.
To Prof Attafuah, the September 30 expectation is not fair as the outfit was not established to operate by deadlines.
“NIA was not set up with a specific deadline but in perpetuity. What that means is that we are to deliver our mandate pretty much the same as the hospital or a maternity ward that people go there as and when they need to,” he added.
Meanwhile, the outfit has revealed there are about 800,000 printed cards yet to be collected.