The Vice President of Ghana, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has revealed that the government has made plans to issue every newborn a National Identification number in 2022.
This is part of the digitization agenda’s ambition to create a database of all citizens.
Dr. Bawumia said on Tuesday evening at an Ashesi University digitisation forum that a link would be established between the Births and Deaths Registry, the Ghana Health Service, the Ghana Statistical Service, the Immigration Service, the police, and the National Identification Authority.
“Every newborn will within a month be issued with a national ID number,” the Vice President said.
He bemoaned the fact that Ghana has a system in which “the vast majority of the population could not be uniquely identified.”
“It is possible to be born in Ghana, live a full life, die, and be buried, and there would be no trace of you on any documentation that you ever lived and died in this country,” Dr. Bawumia observed.
In other announcements, the Vice President also said the government will launch an E-Pharmacy as well as the global acceptance of the Ghana Card as an electronic passport.
