The National Identification Authority is ready to chart a new course in order to positively turn the fortunes of the Authority around in the shortest possible time, says its Chief Executive Dr. Josiah Cobbah
Not shying away from the avalanche of challenges which had bedeviled the Authority, Dr Cobbah said “as a public service authority NIA has made an effort to carry out its mandate. Along the way many mistakes and missteps have happened. There have been many lessons learnt since 2006. NIA’s Board and management see surmountable challenges that we can overcome. We believe that the essence of leadership is to address challenges, and we have elaborate plans to address our challenges”.
After about 8 years of NIA’s involvement in a national registration exercise the situation on the ground does not show a successful program and Cobbah says NIA has Unprocessed data including data collected as far back as 2008 when the exercise began in the Central Region, experienced a very high data rejection rate in the region of 45%-50%;
millions of Ghanacards printed but have not been collected due mainly to little or no funding, Obsolete equipment including MRWs that were breaking down frequently, huge indebtedness, including sums owed to data collectors, contract staff, service providers, and huge utility bills among others.
In an interaction with the media recently, the CEO said “the negative impact of the system challenges on NIA’s ability to deliver on its mandate has been enormous. Several explanations have been given by the technical staff for this situation. For example, whilst the system was not yet ready, data collection had started in earnest in 2008. Indeed, it is only in November 2010 that system installation and training was completed, almost three years after commencement of data collection. Technical difficulties that plagued the system included a software malfunction in the form of a script that behaved like a worm. This script kept interrupting the system, took up memory space, and made the system generally unstable”.
Touching on some Public Private Partnership contracts, he narrated that
In May 2012, the NIA signed a PPP contract with Identity Management Systems (IMS) Ltd. This involves the licensing of IMS to register eligible foreign nationals living in Ghana. This PPP is so far the only one that has successfully gone through under the existing PPP Policy guideline issued by Government in June 2011. “The PPP has been largely successful. It is an instant issuance system that eliminates the cost and challenges associated with card distribution. The system also takes care of the data needs of all stakeholders including all 10 fingerprints, an ICAO compliant portrait and contact information just to mention a few. It has brought revenue to the NIA in an unprecedented way”.
He disclosed further that the NIA was engaging the private partner in a review of the Foreigners Identification Management Systems (FIMS) contract. “The review is addressing various concerns that have been raised by the parties and stakeholders on issues such as revenue sharing, the nature of license fees, security, verification and the enforcement of card usage. The goal of the process is to address all concerns taking advantage of all the lessons learned over the life of the project”, he added.
Based on the successes chalked as stated above, and given the absence of any other viable funding mechanism for a national registration effort, the Board decided that the PPP should be expanded to enable instant issuance of Ghanacards to Ghanaians as well. The advantages of instant card issuance should be clear by now in the light of issues already mentioned. Suffice it to say that it is cost effective. The PPP Approval Committee (PPAC) gave approval in principle for the expanded PPP and is awaiting the submission of a draft contract by the parties.
Following concerns raised in the media about the operations of NIA the Office of the President directed the Board of NIA for NIA to carry out stakeholder engagements regarding its future plans.
Operationally, the NIA has an obligation to ensure that at all times a technical and operational system is designed such that NIA remains firmly in control of its mandate, and that issues such as the determination of citizenship, the privacy of citizens and the security of data conform strictly to the requirements of the NIA enabling legislation.
For the first time in its existence the NIA, he said is being required to rely almost entirely on its internally generated funds (IGF) to fund its operations. This means that the Authority has no choice but to aggressively pursue its revenue sources and enter into creative partnerships under the law for the purpose of advancing its mandate. This means that we have to carry out aggressive enforcement of the use of the Ghanacard beginning with the non-citizen card which is now widely available.
He reiterated that the need for a National Identification System cannot be overstated in this era of terrorism, ghost names and SIM box fraud, to name a few of the many societal ills that confront us.
“NIA is showing an ability to think outside the box at a time when our nation is confronted with funding challenges. The Authority is poised to move on its mandate through PPPs. We need the support of all Ghanaians to do this”, Dr. Cobbah appealed.
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