On 23rd May, 2018, MyNewsGh, monitoring an appearance on TV3 by the Boss of the National Identification Authority (NIA) Prof Ken Attafuah, who himself and by his own mouth said that Ghana’s National Identification Card, the Ghana Card procured by the NIA costs the country $1.22 billion dollars (or GhC5.5 billion cedis) over a 15 year period- and MyNewsGh.com reported it as accurately. This however is now being contradicted by a statement from the Corporate Affairs Department of the NIA under the same Prof Ken Attafuah.
“Over the next 15 years, this project is going to cost us as a nation $1.22 billion”. He had said on TV3, and we reported him thus. Prof Ken Attafuah who is a criminologist also explained that the project is a “Design-Build-Operate-Transfer” agreement which will see both government and the private partner make some financial commitments. “The private partners share of this burden is 678 million dollars, the government of Ghana component 531 million dollars,” he explained.
Enter Kennedy Agyapong
But following the announcement of this $1.2 billion figure, NPP NPP, Mr Kennedy Agyapong has said it is a fraud irrespective of the duration as he was willing and capable of rendering similar service at a lesser cost. He repeated same comment on OkayFM yesterday, Friday, despite the NIA’s ‘new’ figure.
“I took a company to NIA that was willing to do the Ghana Card for $50million. NIA rejected the offer and is currently spending $1.2billion on the Ghana Card. The NPP cannot defend the $1.2 billion for the Ghana Cards. They cannot!”
“Are we crazy? 1.2 Billion DOLLARS for Ghana Card? Are you out of your mind? Are we crazy? This is thievery. They are disgracing Akufo-Addo and it really pains me. Are we crazy in this country? I speak for Ghana. India, their population is 1.2 billion people and they used the same amount for a similar project.”
The Fake U-Turn
The National Identification Authority (NIA), led by Executive Secretary Prof Ken Attafuah, tried to clarify that the total cost of producing the Ghana Cards is $293 million, not $1.2 billion, as widely reported- but the same statement said the cost life cycle of the project is ‘1.2bn USD’.
The statement released by NIA’s Corporate Affairs Department said: “The NIS project to deliver ID cards to all Ghanaians is over a period of one year. Within this period, the state is committed to $124m while the project partner is committed to $169m.”
“The total project cost for the delivery of the Ghana cards is, therefore, $293m and not 1.2bn USD. This total is expected to cover the technical and operational cost that will deliver ID Cards to all Ghanaians over the one year period”.
Source: MyNewsGh.com
