Ghana, a Card carrying nation II

Last week, I mentioned that the government must take the bold decision to consolidate at least the:

1.       National Health Insurance Card

2.       Biometric National ID Card

3.       Biometric Voters ID Card

into one card for the Ghanaian populace.

What sort of benefits can accrue from the consolidation of all these cards/functions into one multi purpose card?

Cost Effectiveness

As things stand, three (3 ) discrete government agencies, replete with staff, wage bills and IT infrastructure, administer each of these cards. All these can be replaced by a division within the Electoral Commission’s IT department. This division will be responsible for the rollout and administration of the multipurpose card. Significant cost savings can be realized from the consolidation of all these agencies into one.

Consolidation of Data

Significant information overlap exists between the various cards. Examples are Citizen Name, Address, Age, Sex and Biometric Information. Three government databases exist, containing basically the same information.

Once these cards are consolidated into one database, all government agencies can then be linked into this database to seek information on or additional information can be appended to each citizens data. For example when a citizen registers a new vehicle, the DVLA will log into the database and under the list of vehicles, add the registration number of the new vehicle.

If a traffic offence is committed by a citizen or he is involved in an accident, the police can call the government Call Centre and after giving the vehicle registration number, be given the name and address of the owner of the vehicle. The next time the citizen commits a traffic offence, the police can quickly call up his information from the government call centre and find out if he has committed a similar offence before or if the vehicle has been involved in an accident.

The Insurance industry could benefit from such a system. First of all they would not have to spend vast amounts creating their own databases of vehicles and accident reports. When a citizen goes to renew his car insurance, the Insurance company can quickly log into the government database and find out how many accidents the owner or his vehicle have been involved in. This can determine the discount that the owner of the vehicle receives.

From the Health perspective, if a citizen of the land is ill, all he has to do is to visit a Doctor or health facility and present his card. The Doctor can treat the individual and then update the medical records of the citizen at the government database. This means that a citizen can receive treatment from any government facility and his medical records are available to any health facility. This should also prevent nationals from neighbouring countries from taking advantage of our free health facilities.

Banks and financial institutions could also benefit from this database. Many citizens take loans from one bank and disappear into thin air. They then walk into another bank, create a track record and contract loans from the next bank. This state of affairs increase the risk in giving loans which translates into higher interest rates. When a customer opens an account with a bank, the bank can log into the government database with the customers biometric information and see if he has an outstanding debt with another bank..

VAT and Tax collection

Tax agencies can log into this government database and update the records of individuals and company directors with the status of their tax obligations. Many individuals owe the taxman but can import new vehicles and tender for government and private sector contracts. With such a database, Customs at the port will not only levy the requisite duties for the expensive vehicle imports, but would be able to seize the vehicle until outstanding tax liabilities elsewhere are settled

Ghana, a Card carrying Nation

One fine evening in Mbrah a “suburb” of Breman Asikuma, with the sun setting in the West from the direction of the boys school, I took my radio and sat in front of my mother in laws house.

On radio, as usual, there was a heated argument, between representatives of the two main political parties. It was about a supplementary budget that had been passed in parliament recently. A huge chunk of the supplementary budget, that is GH₵80 million ($52 million) would be required by and given to, the Electoral Commission, to undertake the registration and provision of Biometric Voter ID Cards to the citizens of the Republic of Ghana. I was both happy and sad by the news.

Happy because the Electoral Commission had won. Several years ago, the Electoral Commission had argued that it was in the best position to undertake the National ID Card project. Implicit in their argument was the proposal that the same biometric card would double as a National ID Card and a Voters Card. The Electoral Commission lost the argument and a separate National ID Authority was established to undertake the exercise. Needless to say, those of us in Breman Asikuma have not received our cards yet.

I was sad because, for reasons best known to our Politicians and technocrats, $52 million was going to be spent effectively DUPLICATING EFFORT. A similar amount if not more had been spent previously on setting up the National ID project.

“Good Evening ooooooh”. I looked up and saw Koo Krampah on his way back from his cocoa farm. I responded warmly and watched him walk away, tired and looking bedraggled. Millions of farmers like Krampah, all over Ghana, labored day in and day out, to nurture their farms until they harvested and dried their produce. It then dawned on me that the fruits of our hardworking farmers was what fueled and covered up the excesses and unwise duplication of effort in creating multiple cards for citizens of Ghana.

So by 2012, Ebo would have to carry 5 cards on his person at any point in time/.

1.       Drivers License

2.       National Health Insurance Card

3.       Biometric National ID Card

4.       Biometric Voters ID Card

5.       Mobile Phone Card

The tragedy of it all is that the information on all the above mentioned cards could have been consolidated onto one card. This is because the current generation of Smartcards are effectively mini computers with the capacity and ability to store significantly more information than all the aforementioned cards combined. Each card also has the ability to perform multiple functions  at the same time. So performing all the roles of the above cards would be a piece of cake for each Smartcard. And this information was common knowledge 10 years ago.  In certain IT circles abroad, executives must be laughing at the unnecessary duplication of effort we practice here in Ghana.

The way forward

Well for a start, the most competent organization in that respect, the Electoral Commission, has been awarded the contract to undertake the Biometric Voters ID. Steps must be taken to ensure that the technology and cards used:

·         are scaleable

·         can perform their assigned roles for the next 10 years

·         have the requisite capacity for the aforementioned time period and more

Once these are in place, the government must take the bold decision to consolidate at least the:

1.       National Health Insurance Card

2.       Biometric National ID Card

3.       Biometric Voters ID Card

into one card.