No Ghana Card, no banking – Banks ready to comply

• Posted on January 20, 2022January 20, 2022
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Banks have expressed their readiness to comply with a Bank of Ghana (BoG) directive that mandates them to use only the Ghana Card in identifying their customers before transacting business with them.

The Ghana Association of Bankers (GAB) said the July 1 deadline was favourable and they would take the necessary steps to enable them to comply.

The Chief Executive Officer of the GAB, Mr John Awuah, told the Daily Graphic yesterday that banks had been working with the National Identification Authority (NIA) and its private partner to link their systems to the National Identity Register for the purposes of verification.

Consequently, he expressed the confidence that the processes would be completed by June to allow for its take off in July.

Directive

He was reacting to a public notice from the central bank to banks and other deposit-taking institutions to accept only the Ghana Card as a form of identification in undertaking transactions from July 1, this year.

The central bank also directed the affected institutions to take steps to update their customer records using the Ghana card details as the only form of identification.

The directive issued yesterday and signed by the bank’s Secretary, Ms Sandra Thompson, said the move was to ensure the safety of the financial system.

“The public is to note that no other form of identification will be accepted for financial transactions in all BoG-regulated financial institutions after the effective date stated above,” the notice stressed.

It explained that the directive applied to banks, specialised deposit-taking institutions (SDIs) non-deposit-taking financial institutions, payment service providers and dedicated electronic money issuers, forex bureaus and credit reference bureaus.