“The Ghana Card Number at birth is not just an ID; it’s a promise to our children of a future where their identity and rights are recognized from their very first breath.”
A statement made by the former Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, at the launch of the Ghana Card Number at Birth System at the Ga North Municipal Hospital in Accra on Thursday, March 14, 2024 to kick off the registration of children from zero to six years into the national identity platform.
Government, through the collaborative efforts of the Ghana Health Service, the Births and Deaths Registry and the National Identification Authority (NIA) had integrated its systems into the national identity card which was rolled out across the country.
This integrated system ensured that every child from zero to six years born in the country was immediately provided with a unique identity linking the child to the mother’s identity.
A national identification (ID) card is an official document issued by a government to its citizens and or residents. It typically contains personal information about the individual, such as their full name, date of birth, a unique identification number, a photograph, and sometimes other biometric data like fingerprints or iris scans, among other important features of the individual. The card serves as a means of confirming a person’s identity and citizenship (Oduro-Marfo et al, 2021).
Ghana Card at Birth system is said to provide documentary evidence of legal identity, social relationship and rights from birth, ensuring social protection.
How Ghana Card at birth works.
According to Graphiconline, the integrated Ghana Card at Birth system works by linking the mother’s record with the Ghana Card during the antenatal period.
So, when birth occurs in a health facility, it is captured in an electronic system.
The Births and Deaths Registry system receives the birth notification, assigns a birth registration number, and relays it into the District Health Information System E-tracker or light wave.
The Births and Deaths Registry then sends the birth registration number and birth details data from the District Health Information System 2.
The E-tracker of light wave is then sent to the NIA with the picture of the mother, which is authenticated by the NIA as being a citizen.
A Ghana Card number is then generated for the baby and sent back to the health system.
In order to finish the procedure and obtain the card and birth certificate, the mother is then notified to go to the closest NIA and Births and Deaths Registry office.
Also in October this year, the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) and NIA began registration of children between the ages of six to 14 on to the Ghana Card as part of efforts to get all Ghanaians onto the national identification database.
Targeting 6.2 million children, the initiative was to ensure that the card becomes an all-inclusive one for accessing services including healthcare.
The national identity card, was first issued in 2017 and Mass Registration Exercise started on the April 29, 2019, a total of 18,460,010 Ghanaians has been registered as at November 27th, 2024, with 17,960,376 cards printed and 17,430,540 cards were issued.
Benefits
The Ghana Card at Birth system which is said to provide documentary evidence of legal identity of a child, would also ensure to protect their rights at all times.
That is, it would aid these children have easy access to social services such as, health care services, educational services, and other governmental assistance programmes.
Similarly, the system would also ensure all children social relationship and equal rights from birth, ensuring social protection.
It also enables effective planning of essential services such as health, education and social welfare for kids at a particular age and period, which would make this service more effective, accessible and efficient and eliminate unnecessary waste of resources.
Furthermore, the new registration system would generate continuous demographic data for better national management, as well as sectoral improvements in health and well-being, and offer a reliable base for assessing progress in childhood health interventions to enhance health, well-being and economic development.
Additionally, it will increase the precision of life expectancy calculations, population projections, and childhood mortality statistics, resulting in more effective and focused health and social interventions.
It would also help calculate district-level fertility estimates, which will allow for more precise targeting of population growth and policy interventions.
Describing the intervention as “milestone in the journey of the nation towards digital transformation and effective governance,” the former Vice President said it would address a longstanding issue in the country, where many births remain unregistered due to factors such as remote locations since the registration was taking place at health facilities across the country.
Dr Bawumia said the registration was more crucial in rural areas where access to government services was limited and technology served as a vital bridge, adding that the integrated system would ensure that every child born in Ghana was registered and identified with a unique identity number which would aid them to have equal access to social intervention as those in urban areas.
“With a population exceeding 30 million and an annual birth rate of approximately 30 per 1,000 people, Ghana’s demographic landscape underscores the urgent need for a streamlined process for birth registration and identification issuance.
“I am particularly pleased that the Ghana Card number at Birth allows registration at health facilities across the country, ensuring that no mother is excluded, regardless of her location or socio-economic status,” he said.
Digitalisation of birth registration and identification processes would enhance the security and integrity of personal data while reducing the risk of identity. fraud.
It would also help in the fight against child trafficking as rescued children could be reunited with their families.
Concerns
According to some parents, one of the core concerns was privacy infringement both on the child and mother since there would be linkage.
Though assigning national ID numbers to newborns at birth may reduce the incidence of identity theft, some individuals worry that the government may abuse public data.
Rosina Ntawan, a first time mother, expressed worry about not knowing what happens to the linked data when her child turns 15 and eligible to now own a card, “ what happens to the previous data taken when my baby was just months old, will they delete that data after taking my child’s biometric data for the Ghana card?,” she asked.
Satisfaction
Some mothers expressed satisfaction with the process and the registration of their children into the Ghana card system, which would allow these kids access to all social services including good health care and education services.
According to Mary Appiah, a mother of two boys below the age of eight, who got to register both of his sons expressed satisfaction in the process.
“I heard of the registration process being held at some health centres, so I decided to go register my two-year old son, and I was satisfied with the process and how smoothly it was unlike what we adults went through when we were registering.”
“The day the registration process was rolled out, I happened to watch it on television, hearing the benefits of the system to our children motivated me to go register my child,” she said.
Remote locations are also another concern for the registration of Ghana Card at birth, some villages are hard to reach or far from town where health centres are, making it difficult for NIA officials and health centre workers to access to register children.
Gap
One of the major gaps of the system is lack of education and awareness creation about the process and its benefits to the mother, the child as well as the nation at large.
There has been less awareness creation of the registration process and its benefits especially in the rural communities as most mothers there were not aware of the registration.
A resident at Kpandai in the Kpandai District, Mrs Takan Manyibo, who is also a mother of four said she was not aware of the registration process and she did not know anyone who had registered to educate her about it.
Therefore, it is important government intensifies efforts to create public awareness of the registration processes and the potential benefits that it would provide the children in the country.
Similarly, there is a need to sensitise the public about the safety of the data as well as the data of the children to ease their concerns, this would help parents participate fully in the registration process by bringing their kids out.
Also, there was a need to increase the number of registration centres, it makes accessibility easier while providing logistics for officials at the registration centres to reach remote communities, these would help government and its agencies like NIA, GHS and Births and Deaths Registry achieve its intended goal of providing unique identity to every Ghanaian citizen.
This report is produced under the DPI Africa Journalism Fellowship Programme of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) and Co-Develop.
BY CECILIA YADA LAGBA
