“NIA should reconsider fees charged for Ghana card rectification”-Nana Osei Bonsu

A Socio-Economic Analyst, Nana Osei Bonsu has  appealed to the National Identification Authority (NIA) to reconsider the fees to be charged for rectification of details  on  Ghana cards.

Nana Osei Bonsu in an interaction with Focus FM’s Blessing Doe, on  Teknokrat show following the  announcement by the NIA regarding the charges required for Ghanaians who intend to acquire a Ghana card and those who intend to make some corrections, pleaded for the reconsideration of the said amount to be charged, especially for individuals who intend to make corrections.

“I will continue to plead with the Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority, Professor Attafuah. They are planning to charge 30 cedis when you go and plan to get your Ghana card corrected,” he said.

The NIA has anounced that subscribers will be charged Ghc 30 for change of name wrongly spelt and that of date of birth among others.

“And what I am pleading with them is that, if I come to register my name I don’t know how to read and write, I give you my name, I give you an ID and you as an NIA worker, you misspelt the name and then I’m coming back to correct it and you are saying you are going to charge me 30 cedis. I say they should seriously consider it and weigh that fees”, he said.

Meanwhile the  Head of Department of Corporate Affairs at the National Identification Authority, Abudu Abdul-Ganiyu has explained that these charges have been approved by parliament, thus the NIA is only implementing the law.

“These are fees and charges. They’ve been taken to parliament. The law is the law and we can only work with that until there’s an amendment to the law.”

The charges, which are part of the revenue model, he said, cover any changes on the card that would lead to the printing of a new card.

“If you are correcting date of birth. So as long as any update would lead to the printing of a new card, you would pay the GHS30.

“The second thing is having lost a card. First of all, you go to the police station, get what we call a police extract, then you come to the NIA. NIA is able to replace that card for you at a cost of GHS30.