Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia faced criticism for saying that he preferred the Ghana Card over road interchanges in the effort to advance the country.
Speaking at the launch of two new, highly specialized information technology programs at the Accra Business School in Baatsona, Accra, he said that he prefers the national identification card, also known as the Ghana Card, over 1,000 interchanges.
Although some Ghanaians do not fully comprehend the government’s push for digitalization, he pointed out that the government is willing to pursue the agenda as a way to change the nation’s economy.
There are now 16 million individual identities in Ghana, which is a significant improvement. However, some problems date back to independence. One issue we inherited was the absence of a uniform national identity system. We had established a national identification system for the Ghana Card. Many people occasionally struggle to understand its significance. Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia stated that if given the choice between the Ghana Card and a thousand interchanges, he would choose the Ghana Card because it has a greater impact.
The Vice President noted that some members of the public were incensed by this statement and questioned whether the speaker was alright.
Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, however, reverted to his earlier claim that “I’ll prefer Ghana card over 1,000 interchanges” in his remarks to attendees at the Civil Service Awards event on Friday, July 29 and made an effort to clarify.
My Ghana Card statement appears to have been misread. I want people to think about it critically. For the first time in human history, we have a biometrically based unique identity system that enables us to uniquely identify every person, whether they are alive or dead.
The National Service Scheme discovered 14,000 ghost workers, saving 114 million Ghana cedis annually from just one institution because we search for unique identification. SSNIT recently reported finding 27,000 fictitious pensioners receiving 327 million cedis annually. As a result, the problem of ghost names on our public sector system will be solved.
The government claims that both Ghanaians who are permanently residing abroad and those who are not will use the card as a distinctive form of identification. The card will only be accepted for all bank transactions in Ghana, according to a separate announcement from the Bank of Ghana. Currently, the card serves as both an SSNIT card and an electronic pa card. On Friday, September 15, 2017, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-administration Addo’s reopened Ghana Card registration.
By:Obed Mprah Otchere
