As a can of issues are opened up day after day on the Ghana Card project, it has become prudent that the Strategic Thinkers Network-Africa (STRANEK) asks for a breakdown of the cost elements of the Ghana card project.
The National Identification Authority (NIA) claims the total cost for the delivery of the Ghana Card is $293 million and the operational lifecycle for over a period of 15 years is $1.2 billion. Hence, our request for a breakdown and justification of the cost elements of the $293 million.
STRANEK’s request is additionally based on the fact that the specifications are really not different from Nigeria’s. If Nigeria covered well over 30 million people and Ghana is also targeting 30 million people, then the excess of over $200 million premium over Nigeria’s cost of the same kind of project is poor in logic. Excuse my French!
One pivotal and real reason for our assertion, is the labour cost and other overheads which are cheaper in Ghana as compared to Nigeria. Even the 12 operational regions NIA intends to set up will still be dwarfed by Nigeria’s geography buttressing our assertion and request.
We will advise the NIA to expedite action on our request for the benefit of tax payers because the earlier they do, the better since the explanation given so far is difficult to ascertain.
We are all involved in building our motherland.
