The National Identification Authority, NIA, wants applicants for the Ghana card to exercise patience as over 300 centres have been open across the country to issue the cards.

A Citi News’ visit to some centres on Tuesday saw a huge number of applicants struggling to register for the cards.

At the Ring Road registration centre in Accra, some applicants were seen spending the night over concerns that only 15 people will be served each day.

The Acting Head of Corporate Affairs of the NIA, Abudu Abdul-Ganiyu, in an interview with Citi News, said permanent regional and districts offices have been opened across the country, and so Ghanaians do not need to mass up at the offices.

“NIA now has a national presence. We are going to be in the districts and regionals forever and that is the reason why there should really not be panic or anxiety because any day you can wake up and go to the NIA office for any of these services to be offered you. The fact is that we have one and enrolment station in every district and, technically and operationally, they are able to enrol only about 15 people a day. I understand that the card is in demand for various services such as SIM card registration, but that is all the way to March next year and if we get to that point where we realize that we still have a significant portion of our population not registered, we are going to call for an extension.”

The Ghana Card has become the sole source of identification card required for the re-registration of SIM cards in the country.

This has led to a surge in demand for the card, with queues seen at different registration centres.

According to the NIA, about 12 million of Ghana’s population have been issued with the cards.