The National Identification Authority, NIA, has asked the public to disregard a Facebook post by Vice President of policy Think Tank, Imani Africa, Bright Simons on the artwork of the Ghana Card.
Mr. Simmons in the said post queried how many were aware that until recently the Ghana Card brand design was not owned by Ghana but owned by a French company.
A statement signed by Acting Head of Corporate Affairs of the NIA, Dr. Abudu Abdul-Ganiyu, said the controversy which the post has generated is needless.
The statement explains that the artwork for the 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.
Under the contract, SAGEM designed, built and supplied the cards to the Government to be operated by NIA. It says under the contract, the artwork produced by SAGEM was exclusively for the use of Ghana which could not be sold or passed on to any person or entity.
To maintain consistency and have sovereign control over the Cards the NIA says it accordingly, bought the artwork from IDEMIA the successor of SAGEM MORPHO.
The statement says the current Ghana Card artwork is produced by Intelligent Card Production Systems Limited a wholly owned subsidiary of the Margins ID.
