Founding President of the IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, Franklin Cudjoe, has challenged claims that former Vice-President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia originated the Ghana Card project, insisting that the national identification initiative was conceived and developed years before Dr. Bawumia assumed office.
In a social media post, Mr. Cudjoe said discussions around a modern national identity system began during the administration of former President John Agyekum Kufuor, long before Dr. Bawumia became Vice-President in 2017.
“He promoted the card, but he didn’t initiate it, nor did he invent it,” Mr. Cudjoe stated.
According to him, the late businessman and technology entrepreneur Herman Chinery-Hesse introduced him to Moses Baiden, Managing Director of Margins Group, during the Kufuor administration as the developer of what he described as one of the most advanced identity management systems available for Ghana’s national ID programme.
Mr. Cudjoe recalled that despite the availability of local technological solutions, the government at the time opted for a foreign contractor to undertake the project.
He also revealed that IMANI actively engaged the National Identification Authority (NIA) during the Mills administration over concerns about the direction of the national identification programme.
According to him, millions of Ghanaians had already been registered under an earlier system before authorities decided to transition to a more advanced biometric platform capable of capturing additional fingerprints.
“The Ghana Card? We started conversations about it years before my friend Dr. Bawumia became Vice-President,” he wrote.
Mr. Cudjoe noted that Margins Group continued to play a key role in the evolution of Ghana’s identity management system, including through support received during the Mahama administration.
He disclosed that he served on a private-sector advisory group at the Danish Embassy, alongside educationalist Patrick Awuah and business leader Elizabeth Villars, which approved initial funding support for Margins Group to continue developing its smart card technology.
The policy analyst further explained that when the Akufo-Addo administration assumed office in 2017, the government adopted a new biometric registration process and restarted the nationwide registration exercise using upgraded technology.
While acknowledging Dr. Bawumia’s role in championing the Ghana Card and promoting its integration into public services, Mr. Cudjoe maintained that the project was the product of years of planning, technological development, and policy decisions spanning multiple administrations.
His comments come amid renewed public debate over the origins of the Ghana Card project and the respective contributions of successive governments, policymakers, and private-sector actors to the development of Ghana’s national identity system.
Mr. Cudjoe argued that the historical record shows that the Ghana Card evolved through the efforts of several stakeholders over many years and should not be attributed solely to one political figure.
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