The former head of Information Communications Technology (ICT) at the National Identification Authority (NIA) has accused the current management o
The former head of Information Communications Technology (ICT) at the National Identification Authority (NIA) has accused the current management of NIA of being bankrupt in terms of technical knowledge in the rollout of the Ghana card.
He said what must be done for the Ghana card to be used in the fight against corruption has not been done.
Mr Osei Kwame Griffiths made this statement on Accra100.5FM’s morning show Ghana Ghana Yensom hosted by Kwame Obeng Sarkodie on Tuesday, 1 February 2022, in reaction to claims by Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia that the government is using the Ghana card to fight corruption in the country.
Mr Griffiths said the NIA has failed as far as the deployment of technology to achieve the intent of the Vice-president is concerned, adding that as it stands now, Ghana has not got to that level of using the Ghana card to fight graft.
He disclosed that in 2016, a decision was taken to stop all agencies from collecting biometric data because it was a national security issue.
It is in view of this that, according to him, a decision was taken that all such agencies integrate their data inventory into the NIA’s database.
He said this arose out of a meeting of biometric data collecting agencies held in the West African sub-region.
Mr Griffiths, therefore, questioned the rationale behind the decision by the current management of NIA to allow the telcos to collect biometric data, as part of the SIM card re-registration exercise.
He said in the Ivory Coast, for instance, the National Identification Agency has ceded the biometric data to the telcos instead of the telcos collecting biometric data.
He further questioned why this cannot be replicated in Ghana.
“This government has lost it when it comes to the integration of all the identities into the NIA’s biometric data in the country”, he said.
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