NIA owes creditors  $117 million

Government’s indebtedness to the National Identification Authority’s (NIA) Suppliers and Bankers that has been negotiated with all creditors amounts to about $117 million.

Preventing total project shut down

To prevent total project shut down, a minimum of $65 million of the outstanding amount is required to be paid urgently in order to meet the current debt obligation.

Indebtedness dates back to 2021

This indebtedness to the banks and credit suppliers has been outstanding since 2021 and are in technical default.

Credit crunch

As a result, the banks and other creditors are not extending any further credit to finance the project.

The private partner has therefore defaulted in paying loans to the banks which have also decided not to extend further credit until debts are cleared.

Return on investment

The project is expected to generate revenue to cover future costs of NIA as well as pay off the debt and return on investment for the private investors at 17% post tax.

17.3m registered

As of February, 19, 2023, NIA has registered 17.3 million (17,357,861), printed 16.7 million   (16,737,734) and issued 16 million (16,095,331) cards.

2.5m left to be registered

It means the remaining population 15 years and above to be registered is 2.5 million (2,565,705).

25,000 average registration a day

An average registration of 25,000 a day can be achieved with 625 Mobile Registration Workstations (MRWs).

This accumulates to three million registrations in 120 days using 20 working days a month over six months.

6.5m blank cards needed for ages 6 to 14

It is estimated that 6.5 million (6,570,000) blank Cards (smart card) are needed to cover ages 6 to 14.

596,000 blank Cards needed for Diaspora registration

Also, an estimated 596,000 blank Cards will be required to cover Ghanaians in the Diaspora in the first year of that exercise.

9.7m blank Cards required

When added to the 2.5 million (2,565,705) yet to be registered, the NIA needs 9.7 million (9,731,705) blank cards.

The Ghana Card Project is being delivered through a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement between the NIA and Identity Management Systems II Ltd

Professor Ken Attafuah, the Executive Secretary of NIA, is confident the Authority can print and issue all outstanding cards when the government clears debt owed its partners.

Already, he said, the government had cleared part of the debt, however, a considerable amount was yet to be paid.

“We have the capacity, we have over a thousand functional printers, we have people who are trained, who professionals who are sitting at home are doing nothing and are anxious to work. We call those people back to work, with 500 printers, we can print 50,000 cards a day,” he said.

Prof. Attafuah said financial constraint was the reason the Authority was unable to print Ghana Cards for the public.

According to him, the NIA owed its partners such as the Identity Management System Limited some considerable amount of money.

As a result, he said more than 3.5 million stocks of blank cards were locked up in a bonded warehouse and NIA is unable to assess the cards because of financial difficulty.