By
Afedzi Abdullah/Isaac Arkoh, GNA
Cape Coast, Jan. 28,
GNA – The ongoing registration of people in the Central Region for the Ghana
Card by the National Identification Authority (NIA) is beset by technical
challenges across the desginated centres in the Cape Coast Metropolis.
Many of the
applicants, who thronged the centres, in the early hours of the day one of the
exercise, had to return home in anger due to faulty machines and the absence of
registration officials at some of the centres.
The few, able to go
through the registration, could also not get their cards, something they
clearly were unhappy about.
The registration
exercise in the region began on Monday, January 27, and ends on Tuesday,
February 18.
To take part in it,
one must process a valid passport or birth certificate or oath of identity and
evidence of acquired citizenship.
However, those who
do not have the mandatory documents, need a relative issued with the Ghana
Card, or two community members issued with the Ghana Card or serving or retired
public or civil servants, the clergy amongst others, to vouch for them to be
registered.
At some of the
centres visited on Tuesday, the GNA observed that, the registration exercise
could not start on time, as people waited anxiously in long queues.
Only few people had
been registered at the registration centre near the Victoria Park at the time
the GNA Reporters got to the place at about 0930 hours.
Things were not any
different at the Professor Atta Mills Presidential Library, the Ayikoo-Ayikoo
Mosque and the Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church Centres, where people were seen
seated and waiting to be attended to.
Scores of people had
made their way to the centres as early as 0300 and for more than six hours,
they had not been attended to, forcing some of them to leave the place in anger
and out of frustration.
GNA