Professor Ken Attafuah, the Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA), has disclosed that applicants for Ghana Card can fill a registration form online.
According to him, the online platform is created to ease the registration exercise, however it is limited which means the applicant will still have to go to Regional or district offices or the NIA headquarters to finish up the registration process.
"You can do it online up to a point. We have to capture your biometrics. So, you can go online, book appointment and fill a form - basic information - but a lot of the information on it is so technical. It's coded," he said.
In an interview on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" programme, Prof. Attafuah recounted reasons why the registration cannot be done solely online.
He explained the Ghana Card registration demands biometric authentication which cannot be done via online application.
"It's a bit complex and complicated but the law requires us to be accurate. Then you come to the biometrics; with the biometrics, we have to capture your 10 figures. There is a technique for doing that and with our system, you can't use your mobile phone to take a picture of your fingers for us. We have a technology for taking your eyes that you can't snap your eyes and forward it to us because you have taken a selfie.
"About your face, the system is built such that your two ears should be exposed because your ears are your biometrics. Your ears are different from each other and it's different from any other human being's ears. We want to capture that too in a particular way, so it's significant that you come to us physically to be registered by capturing those biometrics."
He also stated that before the registered person can receive his or her Ghana Card, he or she will have to be biometrically verified again which is also impossible to do online.
"The third reason why you can't apply online is, after doing all this, we want you to give us authorization before we print the card or thumbprint. And when you finish, finally we must issue the card to you biometrically and when it matches, we hand it to you," he emphasized.
