Nkonkonsa Celebrity Gossip From Africa
CEO of Margins ID Group, Moses K. Baiden has announced that Ghana plans to introduce a digital version of the Ghana Card, a universal national identity, within the next year to go along with the physical one.
In a special interview with Techfocus24, he revealed this.
Similar to the e-passport profile on the Ghana Card, he claims that the electronic ID profile is already on the card and will be activated in the upcoming year.
Moses Baiden stated that all of the data on the Ghana Card’s chip will eventually be transferred via an app to the owner’s SIM card or chip on their phone. A barcode or QR code will then be generated on the phone, allowing for the digital reading of the Ghana Card for a variety of uses.
“Because the Ghana Card uses a chip and all your details can be written on it, they can also be written on the chip on your phone so that where the physical Ghana Card is not available your phone chip can be used to verify your identity with a nfc (near field communication) device also designed and developed by Margins.
“We will also have a digital ID Card which looks just like your original Ghana Card, with your picture, card number, date of birth and everything else, plus a bar/QR code, which can be scanned from your phone screen for all purposes,” he stated.
In fact, Kenya recently declared that it will be launching a project to issue digital ID cards to its residents in lieu of paper ones.
Moses Baiden, on the other hand, believes that’s not a smart concept, especially for a developing nation where a system like that would not cover all use cases and would therefore only help a limited number of citizens.
He clarified that although the digital version of the Ghana Card is just as effective as the physical form and functions exactly the same, it cannot be accessed for verifications if the holder’s phone dies.
Once more, not everyone owns a phone, and not all places have the infrastructure necessary to read a digital ID. For these reasons, the physical card is required.
“Because mobile phone penetration is significant, the digital ID can be a good addition to the physical Ghana Card but we are not yet at the stage where we can discard the physical card and go completely digital,” he said.
But he insisted that for convenience, it is important to have both, so that in case one forgets to pick his physical ID card or loses it, the digital one can be used for all purposes.
NKONKONSA.com
