NIA Confirms It Can Provide EC with Biometric Data For New Register

Ghana’s official agency with the mandate to generate biometric and biographic data, the National Identification Authority (NIA) has countered claims by the Electoral Commission that NIA is not in a position to furnish the EC with the necessary biometric data for the purposes of compiling a new voters’ register for the 2020 election.
 
Contrary to the EC’s claim that it is in a better position to generate the biometric data quicker than the NIA which has the purpose-built infrastructure for the purpose, Prof. Ken Attafuah on Saturday said that the NIA had always had the capacity.
 
Today-January 20, 2020, the Head of Corporate Affairs at the NIA, ACI Francis Palm Deti, confirmed Prof. Atafuah’s position, noting that an ongoing process of generating biometric data for the purpose of issuing national identification cards to Ghanaians is progressing smoothly.
 
“The entire registerered population is 16 million, but because we are targeting 80% of the population, we are looking at 14million. We are hoping that once we have finished with mass registration in the Eastern region we have drawn a plan to quickly set up permanent centers in the districts and these permanent centers will continue with the registration and so we believe that it is not an event; mass registration is prescribed by the law and that’s what we should do first and once we are done with mass registration, continuous registration immediately kicks in.”
 
ACI Deti also added that the data that the NIA is collecting is more usable than data that any institution can generate. “The law says the purpose of the data we are collecting is for public use, after we have collected the data, there are what we call user agencies, so when you take institutions like Ghana Immigration Service, Ghana Revenue Authority, SSNIT, Statistical service and any other institution that can use our data, including the EC.
 
“This is why forms that applicants fill are comprehensive so it will be usable by all other agencies we have captured adequate fields so that when it’s time to share our data with these institutions that are authorized, they will find our data and our records relevant.”
 
The affirmation trumps the EC’s claim that the NIA cannot be relied on to provide the necessary data that the EC needs to compile a brand new biometric register for the 2020 election.
 
The claim by the EC came about when a coalition of Civil Society Organizations pointed out to the EC that its recalcitrant intent to discard the existing biometric data and compile a brand new register does not have foundation in law.
 
Comprising the likes of the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition, and IMANI Africa, the coalition had pointed out that legally, it is the NIA which has the mandate to generate biometric and biographic data and that even if the EC wants to compile a new register, it would be best to source the data from the NIA.
 
However, the EC had countered by claiming that they had met the NIA and confirmed from the NIA that it could not generate the data on time for the EC hence the EC’s resolution to compile the data by itself.
 
“Why not if the data is available, but I have my doubts. The EC technical team met their technical team which I was part and clearly from our interactions, the EC is convinced that the data will not be available at the time that we need it. For instance, we should be able to compile the voters’ list by June, then we have about two months to do exhibition that will be in August, not beyond August, and in September we have to do the nomination of both pre4sidential and parliamentary candidates before we do the elections in December and from our interactions we are doubting that their data will be available,” the EC’s Director of Elections Dr. Serebour Quarcoo, had claimed.