The Ghana Card project, which seeks to modernize and formalize the Ghanaian economy, was one of the campaign promises of the New Patriotic Party and government has said it will in the establishment of a credible national database and serve as the primary ID card that citizens will use to access all services in the country, including even traveling within the West African sub-region.
When fully implemented the Ghana Card will be the only valid ID for application for a bank account, passport, telephone number, property acquisition, driver’s license and many more but New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Hon. Kennedy Agyapong has expressed concerns about the figure of $1.2 billion for the Ghana Card labeling it as ‘fraud.’
According to the Maverick politician, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, Prof Ken Attafuah, head of National Identification Authority (NIA) is abusing state coffers since he [Kennedy Agyepong] can execute the same project with an amount of 50 million dollars.
“Are we crazy? 1.2 Billion DOLLARS for Ghana Card? Are you out of your mind? Are we crazy? This is thievery. They are disgracing Akufo-Addo and it really pains me. Are we crazy in this country? I speak for Ghana. Even in India, their population is 1.2 billion people and they won’t use the same amount for a similar project. Ghana we are “A poor country like Ghana and should reconsider,” Kennedy Agyepong said.
Adding that Ken Attafuah is perpetrating a fraudulent activity and must be stopped before they spend the money.
“I took a company to NIA that was willing to do the Ghana Card for $50million. NIA rejected the offer and is currently spending $1.2 billion on the Ghana Card. The NPP cannot defend the $1.2 billion for the Ghana Cards. They cannot!”, he thundered in rage over the fraud in the midst of poverty in a country.
The National Identification Card, the Ghana Card procured by the National Identification Authority (NIA) will costs the country $1.2 billion dollars (or GhC5.5 billion cedis) over a 15 year period, netbuzzafrica.com can confirm.
Although scheduled to take off yesterday, May 28, 2018, speaking to TV3, the Executive Director of the NIA, Prof Ken Attafuah explained the details in the project on the registration exercise which failed to commence at its initial date dues to technical hitches.
He further explained that the project is a “Design-Build-Operate-Transfer” agreement which will see both government and the private partner make some financial commitments.
“The private partners share of this burden is 678 million dollars, the government of Ghana component 531 million dollars,” he added.
The nationwide registration exercise which will be from one region to the other will also see the NIA register Ghanaians in the diaspora but according to Prof. Attafuah who so far refused to disclose how much government has so far allocated for the project revealed that “We have sufficient money to begin the process today”. He added, rather pointedly, that “I cannot tell you how much we have because when you need money, the money is made available to you”.
However, he added that, “Six months after we have started, the government will make money available as and when it is required.”
