Ghana will relaunch National Identification initiative - Terkper

The Minister of Finance, Mr Seth Tekper, has announced that the government will launch the National Identification initiative.

Presenting the 2016 budget to Parliament on Friday, Mr Tekper said a National Identification database had become necessary to provide robust official identity for delivering particular services, including the creation of a new voters register.

Preparations for the 2016 elections have been beset by disagreements over the credibility of the voters register.

While the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) wants a new voters register over fears that the current one has been compromised, the Electoral Commission (EC) has hinted that a new voters register would still be contentious if it was not based on data from the National Identification database.

To this end, Mr Terkper said the government would make money available for the National Identification Authority (NIA) to carry out a new registration exercise.

He said the database would also be useful to relevant government agencies, such as the Ghana Revenue Authority.

A National Identification exercise was conducted in 2008 but millions of those who registered cards have still not been issued with cards.