Ghana Card - My beef

About a month or so ago, there was a letter in the Daily Graphic from a father complaining about the non-issuance of his son’s Ghana Card; the thrust being that there had not been any communication on what was happening about the non-issuance.

Hardly did I know, I would be going through the same.

I had gone through the Ghana voter registration process, using guarantors and was so determined to get a Ghana card the next time the window of registration was opened, no matter the odds this time.

On August 27 2020, I went for registration at the Presbyterian Church Centre at the Sakumono Estates. Everything went well and I was duly registered and my picture taken in a short time, because I was given the privileges of a senior citizen.

I was asked to come for my card the following day. Come the following day, I was asked to come two days later. It went on like this until I was told to write my name and contact number in a register, with the clear understanding that I would be contacted when the card was ready.

Eventually, the registration moved to another location without any hint of information as to how I and others, in a similar situation, could have our Ghana Cards.

In fact, the last thing I gathered from the young officer of the registration team was that my card, was awaiting decision. What this meant, I don’t know.

The purpose of writing is to complain about how the registration for the Ghana Card is done and to offer a suggestion as to how it can be improved. It is definitely an unfriendly system as is being carried out now.

Factor

That a system of taking pictures, using National Identification Authority’s (NIA) type of cameras and failing is not new and nothing to surprise anyone who lives in Ghana. But why has NIA not factored this into its system of work?

My believe is that there must definitely be an inventory of each day’s number of pictures taken followed by the number of Ghana Cards issued on the basis of pictures taken.

The difference between these two items gives a list of persons who are yet to have their cards issued.

The reasons for the non-issuance could be written against the names on a list, if it does in no way violate the mode of operations of the NIA.

With such information posted at a vantage point of the Registration Centre, no one with value for time would want to go and queue just to check if the card is or is not ready for collection.

You wouldn’t believe the queue of anxious persons waiting to get attended to by the scheduled officer (just one officer too) and only to check whether a card was ready.

Conclusion

After going through the process, I have come to the conclusion that our institutions do not factor the value of time and the comfort of beneficiaries into their processes. Processes can be made more peoples friendly.

Registration could be limited strictly to a particular area and this could work, now that digital addresses are requirements.

Again, my engagements with the officers doing the registration gives me the impression that there seems to be little or no feedback between the field workers and the head office, where the system of registration is developed.

Without feedback, there is no way the system can be improved and be made more people-friendly.

The idea of a Ghana Card is laudable, but the institution (NIA) driving the process can do better.

By the way, how did the Electoral Commission (EC) do so excellently with their registration, and the NIA seems not to be able to?

Up to the time of writing this article, I am still yet to be contacted and don’t know who to contact either. My card is in limbo!

C13/A/D54, DTD Sakumono Estates,
E-mail: kofmens47gmail.com
Mob. 0244848400