NIA to begin mass registration in U/R next week

The National Identification Authority (NIA) will on Monday, July 22, kick start its mass registration exercise in the Upper West Region.

The exercise, which is expected to last for only ten (10) days, covers all persons who are six years and above.

Ms. Bertha Dzeble, Head of Public Affairs at the NIA, who disclosed this at a media briefing in Wa on Tuesday, emphasized that registration was mandatory and not by choice.

She said a total of 1,267 personnel have been trained to fill the forms whilst another 700 would be in charge of entering the data into the registration machines.

She said personal information such as name, date of birth, place of birth, hometown/district of hometown, nationality, educational background, occupation, postal address, house number, street name and parents as well as spouse information would be required of an individual at the registration centre.

Ms. Dzeble also urged the general public to come along with all or any of the following verification documents namely; baptismal card or certificate, birth certificate, birth weighing card, voters ID card, passport, drivers license and SSNIT card.

Other documents include; National Health Insurance ID card, sworn affidavit, immigration permit, dual citizenship certificate and naturalization certificate. The NIA Head of Public Affairs however noted that persons who did not possess any of these documents should bring relatives to identify them under oath.

She stressed that registration was absolutely free and advised the public to report any officer or person who demands money for registration to any of the following; NIA District Officers/Monitors or the State Security Agents.

Ms. Dzeble pointed out that it was an offence for anyone to try to register twice; adding that, the system could only capture a person’s information only once and that anyone who tried registering twice would be identified and punished according to the law.

She said so far over 91,000 double registrations had been identified and measures would be put in place to trace such people.

She added that a person found guilty of double registration would be charged 2,500 penalty units or put in jail for five years.

Ms. Dzeble said the difficulty associated with the exercise was how to determine people living along border areas as Ghanaians or non Ghanaians, adding that, in such areas, chiefs and other opinion leaders would be contacted to assist in identifying such people.

She said the exercise was not for voting purposes but rather a mechanism aimed at providing a secure and undoubted way of identifying both Ghanaians and foreign nationals living in the country.

She, therefore, appealed to the public not to prevent people from registering.