The government plans to issue every newborn child a National Identification number from 2022, according to Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

This is part of plans to get a database of all citizens under the digitalization agenda.

Speaking at a forum on digitalization at the Ashesi University on Tuesday evening, Dr. Bawumia said a link would be created between the Births and Deaths Registry, the Ghana Health Service, the Ghana Statistical Service, the Immigration Service, the police and the National Identification Authority.

“Every newborn will within a month be issued with a national ID number,” the Vice President said.

He lamented that Ghana operates a system “where most of the population could not be uniquely identified.”

“It is possible to be born in Ghana, live a full life, die, and be buried, and there would be no trace of you on any documentation that you ever lived and died in this country,” Dr. Bawumia observed.

In other announcements, the Vice President also said the government will launch an E-Pharmacy as well as the global acceptance of the Ghana Card as an electronic passport.

The forum at the Ashesi University was themed “Transforming an Economy through Digitalization: the Ghana Story”.