Yayra Koku, Director General of the National Identification Authority (NIA)
New Director General of the National Identification Authority (NIA) Yayra Koku, has been heavily mocked by Ghanaians for exposing his ignorance on the value and functions of the Ghana Card.
In a Facebook post Thursday, Yayra Koku boldly announced his plans to link the Ghana Card to mobile money and bank accounts. He also added his plans to turn the Ghana Card into drivers license, as well as a proposal for easy passport application with the Ghana Card.
However, shortly after making the post, Yayra Koku’s post attracted comments from a number of Ghanaians, who exposed what they called his ignorance of what the Ghana Card already does.
The chip-embedded Ghana Card, which captures the biometric details of holders, has already been linked with bank and momo accounts, as well as the databases of the GRA, making the Ghana Card numbers also the their tax identification (TIN) numbers.
The Ghana Card has also been linked with the DVLA, the National Health Insurance Scheme, Controller and Accountant General Department (CAGD) to control public payroll, as well as SSNIT.
Respondents spared no time in reminding Yayra Koko the volume of work former Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia did, in spearheading the integration of the Ghana Card into Ghana’s financial and other national identity systems.
“Dr. Bawumia have done it already. It’s seems like you are a foreigner in Ghana. Every Ghanaian with Ghana card has long been linked to their momo and account. Any one who go to the bank to withdraw or deposit money can’t do that without Ghana Card,” wrote Eunice Debrah, in a direct response the new NIA CEO.
Many other comments reiterated Eunice Debrah’s post, and expressed shock that the new CEO of the NIA was unaware of the status of the present status and functions of the Ghana Card.
A number of contributors sarcastically told the new CEO that he and his party, the NDC, were so busy attacking Dr. Bawumia and basterdising the Ghana Card that they were not aware of what was happening.
