She said with the national IDs, Ghanaians would be able to access many services such as Health Insurance, Drivers Licence, Passports and others through the national data base.
The Minister said this when she was addressing a get-together organised by the Communications Ministry, for the Transition Team on Communications.
It was attended by both former and present officials of the ministry.
Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful noted that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in its manifesto promised to issue National ID Cards to both Ghanaians and non-citizens, hence the desire to fulfill the pledge.
According to her, this will be in fulfillment of NPP’s long-held promise to build a database of Ghanaians and other nationals resident in Ghana to among others, help generate enough revenue for the country.
“If we are able to do and do it well, Ghanaians will benefit because the law states that every Ghanaian needs some sort of identification in all the transactions they do, but we don’t have it”, she said.
She added that by swipe of the card, all the necessary information needed for E- commerce service will be available on the card.
“It can be used for applying for many services and also use on the electronic payment system platform to transact business which even includes paying taxes,” the Communications Minister pointed out.
The system, she added, can also be used for cashless transactions and help eliminate corruption as one may not need to pay cash for goods and services.
The minister also hinted that national ID system will include property address system which would be used to monitor property owners who don’t pay property rates because they cannot be located.
“Those who were supposed to pay Taxes but don’t pay would be fished out because we will also have Tax Identification Number, and if monitored well, there will no need to always go for loans since the system will capture many tax payers for the government,” she noted.
Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful said: “even in the case of Drivers’ Licence, a driver will not need to pay cash to the police in case of any fine. All information would be on the card and by slotting the card in a device, the police officer will get all the details for the driver to pay electronically and there will be no delay and confusion anywhere with payments and identification.”
According to her, this is the reason why it is one of the priorities of the NPP government led by President Akufo-Addo.
She also noted that all the necessary arrangements are already been put in place and a Technical Committee which is one of the three committees formed to shepherd the project has presented its report to her and Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
She said they waiting for the other committees to present their reports for the project to commence.
Mr. Owusu-Ekuful reiterated that every Ghanaian will be provided with the National Identification Cards by the close of the year 2017.
She however indicated that all those with old ones would be replaced by the new ones with additional data, which will include capturing of all the 10 fingers as approved by ECOWAS.
Present at the get-together were former Minister for Communications and his Deputy, Dr. Omane Boamah and Mr. Ato Sapong respectively, Hon. O. B. Amoah, MP, Akwuapim South; Mr. Joseph Anokye, acting Director-General of the National Communications Authority; Mr. Jeff Konadu of NITA, Nana Kweku Tabi, Director of Finance and Administration at the Ministry of Communications, George Andah and Vincent Odotei, Deputy Ministers-designate as well as heads of all the agencies under the Ministry of Communications.
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Source: Frontpageghana.com//Sammy Agyei
