The government of Ghana has released GHS 120 million to finance the issuance of the National Identification (ID) Cards.

Deputy Minister of Information and government spokesperson on finance, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, revealed this on Accra FM.

Mr Oppong Nkrumah said today that, the National Identification Authority (NIA) will start distributing the cards to all Ghanaians following the release of their budget.

He said an amount of GHS126million has been released to the NIA for the project.

According to him, they are now in the position to carry out the remaining work to ensure everyone gets the ID card.

“So now the authority won’t have any excuse not to deliver the cards to the people because we have released the money to them,” he said.

However, on 15 September 2017, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo launched the new ID card, dubbed the “Ghana Card”.

He was issued with the first card on the day of the launch.

According to him, the launch of the card “constitutes a practical demonstration of the fulfilment of yet another promise of my party, the New Patriotic Party, made during the 2016 campaign.”

The campaign promise, he recounted, was that the Ghanaian economy will be modernise and formalise through the establishment of a credible national database.

He mentioned that the National Identification System (NIS) will be used as the primary identifier, as prescribed by law.