The National Identification Authority (NIA) has refuted claims made by banks that issues with the Ghana Card are responsible for identification challenges leading to unauthorized charges on money transfers between personal bank accounts and mobile money wallets.
Head of the Ghana Association of Bankers, John Awuah, had attributed the fees to inconsistencies in Ghana Card details between mobile money (MoMo) and bank accounts, suggesting that these discrepancies trigger the system to treat individuals differently and apply charges.
However, the Executive Secretary of the NIA, Prof. Kenneth Attafuah, firmly rejected these claims. In an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show, Prof Attafuah highlighted the successful completion of over 120 million identity verifications since 2021, indicating the effectiveness of the Ghana Card.
“These challenges have absolutely nothing to do with the NIA. I must make that very clear. We have since January 2021 conducted over 120 million verifications without a single hitch. So it must be made clear that once a bank is onboarding, all efforts to verify identities using the Ghana card lie with the bank, not the NIA.
“The infrastructure has been provided to the bank so all they need to do is to establish rules with the staff in the bank to verify identity for every transaction. That is what the law requires.”
He further emphasized that the law mandates the provision of the Ghana Card wherever identification is required, absolving the NIA of any blame in the matter.
“Whether they do this or not is another matter but the law says that wherever identification requires to be established the Ghana card shall be required or produced,” he said.