The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has called on Ghanaians not to downplay the impact of information technology on the economy as the Ghana card has more impact on Ghana’s development than a 1000 interchanges.

Speaking at the launch of two new high-level information technology programmes at Accra Business School on Thursday, 14 July 2022, Dr Bawumia said the Ghana Card will impact Ghana’s development in the long term.

“Today we have 16 million Ghanaians with unique identities and that is a major transformation, a lot of people sometimes don’t even appreciate what the impact of the Ghana Card is but if you gave 1000 interchanges and the Ghana Card, I will choose the Ghana Card because it has more impact on development,” he stated.

The Ghana Card is a valid verification document issued by the National Identification Authority (NIA) to Ghanaians and resident foreign nationals living everywhere for the purpose of identification.

The card bears personal information about the individuals whose identity can be verified at all times. The NIA National Identity System utilizes three types of biometric technology for identification purposes. These are the fingerprints unique to each individual in the form of digitised templates, and facial templates in the form of a digitised colour photo of the cardholder and the iris.

The card contains basic identification information including a photograph of the cardholder, along with a name, date of birth, height, and a personal identification number that has been randomly generated and assigned to the holder and has an expiry date.