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The National Identification Authority (NIA) has condemned a Facebook post by the Vice President of IMANI Ghana, Bright Simons on the artwork of the Ghana Card.
According to the NIA “the controversy over the Ghana Card artwork, generated by the said post, is wholly needless and distractive.”
“How many are even aware that until recently the Ghana Card brand design itself was not even owned by Ghana? That it was owned by a French company & the country had to pay to get it? When Civil Society scrutinizes your govt, be grateful. There’s a war for the soul of your country”, Bright Simon’s post on August 11, 2022 reads.
But NIA in a statement dated August 17, 2022, and signed by the Acting Head, Corporate Affairs, Dr Abudu Abdul-Ganiyu stated that “the post should be regarded as a mix of half-truth, insinuation, self-praise and alarmism” therefore should be disregarded by the public.
The NIA said that the artwork for the Ghana Card was designed by SAGEM MORPHO (now IDEMIA) of France which won the contract for the production of the first generation of Ghana Cards in 2008.
“The said artwork is the same one used for the Ghana Cards issued under the Foreigner Identification Management System (FIMS) to qualified foreigners lawfully resident in Ghana and the current generation of Ghana.
“Under the contract, SAGEM designed, built and supplied to the Government of Ghana a technical platform for the Ghana Card to be operated by NIA.
“A term of the contract was that the artwork produced by SAGEM was exclusively for the use of the Republic of Ghana. SAGEM always held the artwork for and on behalf of the Government of Ghana, and it could not sell or otherwise pass it on to any person or entity.
The artwork had to be designed by a facility with the certification to produce the high-level security artwork required, (the same certification level needed for the design and production of currency). By 2017, as a result of changes in corporate ownership, IDEMIA became the successor of SAGEM, and owned the rights to the Ghana card artwork,” it explained.
Accordingly, the NIA bought the artwork from IDEMIA, the successor of SAGEM MORPHO, which could not have been used for any other purpose.
It emphasized that NIA acquired the artwork because it wanted to have sovereign control over it, multi-nationalize it with the ECOWAS Card, and get IMS II to evolve it in the best interest of Ghana.
Against this background, the authority says the situation is akin to the cedi which is designed for Ghana by a third party but cannot be used by the designer for any other country.
“Based on the foregoing, it is both wrong and ignorant to suggest that the historic retention of the artwork (brand design) by a French company has any significance”, NIA said.
Here’s the full statement below
