The Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Mr. Wisdom Kwaku Deku, has issued a strong caution against the reliance on photocopies of the Ghana Card for identity verification, emphasising that such practices do not establish or confirm an individual’s true identity.
Speaking Citi Eyewitness News on Wednesday September 17, Mr. Deku underscored the importance of biometric authentication in confirming a person’s identity.
“When you do photocopies of someone’s Ghana Card, you’ve not established or confirmed that person’s identity,” Mr. Deku stated. “Until you do biometric verification — either facial or fingerprint — you’ve not established a person’s identity. That is why we are saying, don’t be doing photocopies of people’s Ghana cards.”
The caution comes amid growing concerns over the misuse of Ghana Card photocopies in various public and private sector transactions, which authorities say could lead to fraud, impersonation, and breaches of personal data protection.
Mr. Deku reiterated that the Ghana Card, as a biometric national identity document, was specifically designed to enable secure and accurate identification through technology-backed verification processes. He urged institutions, especially banks, telecom companies, and public agencies, to adopt biometric systems for authenticating identities rather than relying on physical or scanned copies of the card.
