National Identification Bill will be put before Parliament soon

Accra, June 29, GNA - The Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Professor Ernest Dumor on Friday said the National Identification Bill would soon be put before Parliament to be enacted into law.

He said the Bill had been thoroughly perused by cabinet and approved, adding that the authority was optimistic that Parliament would pass it into law for the exercise to take off.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra, Professor Dumor said the NIA was experiencing some technical hitches which had resulted in the delay of the exercise.

Prof. Dumor said the initial framework submitted to the Attorney-General's Department had to undergo some technical changes to ensure that the Authority was given a full legal backing to do its work effectively.

He said according to the A-G's Department the framework did not contain sufficient detail to make it have the required legal support and there was therefore the need to re-couch the document. Professor Dumor gave the assurance that once the bill was passed into law the registration process would follow as the Authority had completed the procurement of all necessary items.

The Executive Secretary hinted that the technical suppliers were working vigorously to make available the materials that would be needed for the exercise to commence smoothly, particularly mobile stations needed throughout the country.

Professor Dumor said so far about 27,000 people had been recruited to collect prototype data as part of a pilot exercise to determine the functionality of the equipment and feasibility of the process. He said adequate security measures had been installed to ensure the protection of personal information and identity of the individual. "The bill's security measures and confidentiality require that the individual's personal information is not tampered with by persons working with the NIA," Professor Dumor said.