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The National Identification Authority (NIA) has said that though it admits failing to provide citizens with their National Identification Cards after earlier registration exercise, Ghanaians should always look at both sides of the equation before passing judgment. According to the NIA, the policy has been unsustainable due to lack of sufficient and consistent funding for the NIA to complete the exercise some six years after the introduction. Addressing a press conference after the authority had come under public criticism recently for wasting state funds in an exercise that was meant to issue Ghanaians with national identification cards, the executive secretary, Dr. Josiah Cobbah also justified its decision to go for a 115 million dollar Chinese loan facility. Asked whether his outfit should be held accountable for failing to issue out cards for the earlier registration, he said �I am not holding brief for NIA. What I am saying is that, yes, hold us accountable but always look at the other side of the equation, what resources were we given to deliver on our mandate?� he asked rhetorically. �We are in the situation where we have a huge mandate, the resources are not adding up, is not that NIA employees just sit around and did not want to do anything,� he added. He said they failed in the distribution process because the funds to mobilize the exercise was too �expensive to even go back and distribute the cards, as I am sitting here, we owe over GH�1m to temporary workers that we used in the Northern region for the distribution.� Dr. Cobbah noted that, �We need to move beyond issuing cards and move to a point where we need verification and authentication.� Technology life cycle According to him, technology changes rapidly, and that is the case for the identity management industry where expensive research and development is enabling modern and advanced means for collection of biometric data and the personalization of the data so collected. He noted that, as an identity management organization, the NIA must adapt to the ever changing international trend and conform to internationally accepted standards. Public Private Partnership The NIA is in partnership with the Chinese firm to capture data and print the cards for Ghanaians. Under this he said the new 120 kilobyte card will integrate and harmonize citizens� bio data and make it useful globally. The NIA in May 2012, after two years of rigorous processes, signed a PPP contract with Identity Management System (IMS) Limited. This involves the licensing of IMS to start a pilot PPP project to register eligible foreign nationals living in Ghana. This PPP according to DR. Cobbah is so far the only one that has successfully gone through under the existing PPP policy guidelines issued by government in June 2011. �It is an instant issuance system that eliminates the cost and challenges associated with the cards distribution. The system also takes care of the data needs of all stakeholders including all 10 fingerprints, an ICAO compliant portrait and contact information. �The expanded PPP scope will enable instant issuance of multifunctional smart identity cards with a chip memory size of 120k. The memory will be segmented and issued to various institutions to run their applications on the same card instead of issuing multiple cards.� According to him, under the expanded scope, the new biometric traits, like the face and iris, have been added to enhance the security and integrity of the NIS. This will ensure that people with poor quality fingerprints or no fingerprints can go through the process of identification and verification. He noted that the Ghanacard, has been designed to assist compatriots with visual challenges to be able to use it using a tactile feature on the card. �This partnership will enable NIA to achieve its target of putting Ghanacards in the hands of up to 15 million Ghanaians by November 2015 utilizing all the resources delivered under the Morpho contract.� $115m Chinese facility Dr. Cobbah at a Press Conference disclosed that the 115 million loan facility being secured from Exim China is not only for printing the ID cards and that the loan would be used to build an identity management infrastructure and the establishment of a national biometric institute. �This concession facility would be applied to re-scoped engineering, procurement and construction contract designed for NIA ecosystem. This re-scoping is necessary since they have been a lot of changes since the signing of the agreement. �Indeed, the facility is to enable NIA to complete its identity management ecosystem and to do such things as harmonizing and integrating all existing biometric database within the public service, help establish regional and zonal offices, develop a disaster recovery centre outside the headquarters, establish a biometric institute to be affiliated to a public university, procure mobile registration.� Stakeholder�s engagement He noted that due to the expanded project, it has engaged the Bank of Ghana and the commercial bank, the passport office, the national communication authority, the chamber of telecoms, the controller and the accountant general�s department, Ghana Immigration Service among others to ensure that they establish a credible national identification system. Dr. Cobbah, however, urged Ghanaians to accept the new card saying the benefits far outweigh the previous cards distributed by the authority. He said 15 million Ghanaians will receive the new card over a nine-month period.