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A total of 1,784 employees and pensioners had so far been migrated onto the new Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) biometric system in Cape Coast, Mr Ebenezer Teye-Mensah, Acting Branch Manager has revealed. An average of 40 people are registered daily with each person waiting not more than an hour in the process, depending on availability of personal records and network condition. The objective of the nationwide exercise is to provide multiple service delivery channels, reduce the member enrolment cycle time drastically, eliminate multiple member registration through a highly secure biometric system, reduce fraud and facilitate easy identity verification. It would also pave way for introduction of a new numbering structure for employers and establishments, which would be used to transact business with the trust. Contributors, including pensioners and new members had queued in an orderly manner at the branch office, waiting their turn, when Ghana News Agency, visited the Cape Coast branch Office on Wednesday. Mr Teye-Mensah told the GNA in an interview that the exercise is progressing steadily in the metropolis with slow network system being the only challenge but is not impeding the exercise in any way. He explained that the slow network system was due to their Wide Area Network connection which was installed in 2012. He gave the assurance that with time the staff would gain more experience and the system would be faster to facilitate the process. The registration started in May on plot basis with the staff of SSNIT and currently the trust is focusing on contributors who are 54 years and above as well as employees who are registering for the first time. He explained that from age 54, any employee could decide to retire and that they would want to ensure that their records were on the biometric so as to make the payment of their pension benefits simpler. Mr Teye Mensah said a special exercise will be held for pensioners even though those who turned up were being registered. On the process of the registration, he said all 10 fingerprints, photographs, signatures were captured by their machines in addition to other personal details after which special numbers were generated the following day and sent to the contributor via email or text message. He said it took two weeks for the biometric card to be issued and that the contributor was required to visit the office to verify and collect the card, explaining that the essence of the verification was to ensure that the card was given to its legitimate owner. He gave the assurance that SSNIT was dedicated to ensuring it delivered the best services on their promises. The Manager urged SSNIT contributors to check their statements of account and report to the nearest office if they had any problems for the smooth payment of claims and also urged contributors to avail themselves for the biometric registration exercise to ensure improved services.