The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has disclosed that measures are underway to ensure that newborn babies receive a unique national identification number, popularly known as Ghana Card within a month after birth starting from 2022.
According to him, the Births and Deaths Registry has been engaged to help in structuring a system that will ensure the nation is able to track its population from birth to death. This move, he believes, will go a long way to establish the identity of everyone born in the country and help to preserve data that can be used in critical moments.
“What we are putting in place at the birth and death registry is a system where – we hope from next year – when a child is born, right at birth or within a month, each child will be given a unique national identification number,” he said.
Dr. Bawumia mentioned that the move forms part of the digitisation initiatives ongoing at the national birth and death registry, adding that digitisation of the death and birth registry is about 80 percent complete.
Speaking at the 5th Chief Executive Officers (CEO) Summit in Accra, Dr. Bawumia said this and many other measures are being put in place by government to formalise the economy are aimed at positioning the country above its peers.
He explained that most of the problems associated with government services such as the Deaths and Births Registry, the Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency (DVLA), the Passport Office and other offices are as a result of bureaucratic and manual operational procedures.
“Government made the strategic decision to address this chronic problem by digitising the Ghanaian economy and government services. The overriding objective of this digitisation drive is to formalise the economy, increase government revenue, fight corruption and ultimately provide public services to citizens more efficiently and more conveniently,” he added.
Touching on how the country can rely on digitisation to build a resilient economy, Dr. Bawumia said the new normal has made it imperative to go digital – and encouraged the CEOs to push more investments into digitising. He further encouraged the CEOs and business leaders present to enhance their operations with innovative digital technology to drive business evolution for survival.
Progress of Ghana Card
Speaking on progress of the National Biometric Identification Card, the Vice President said so far 15.5 million people have been enrolled; and this year it is expected that the process to register all persons below 15 years will be completed. “We will then continue to the schools to enrol those below fifteen years of age,” he added, noting that the National Identification System has provided the nation a database which will be the anchor for all transactions in the future.
Digitisation of COVID-19 Vaccination Card
Dr. Bahamudu Bawumia said the COVID-19 vaccination card will also be digitised and embossed with Quick Response (QR) codes to ensure its authenticity. He said this will make it easy to check details such as the vaccination doses and time of vaccination wherever the cardholder goes.
