We are not affiliated to NPP – Margins Group clarifies

Technical partners of the National Identification Authority (NIA) in the production of the Ghana Card, Margins Groups says it is not affiliated to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).

According to the Chief Executive Officer, Moses Baiden, many individuals perceive that the company has ties with officials of the ruling party for which reason they were given the contract to print the Ghana Cards.

He explained that the company has been in operations for a while, as such, it has handled several other contracts since 1995.

Speaking to a joint Subsidiary Legislation, Defence and Interior parliamentary committee on March 14, Mr Baiden stressed that the Margins Group was a private business which got their contract by dint of hard work.

“We are the first large-scale National ID project in the world and we designed it right here from Ghana.

“Some months ago some people say that they were an NDC company, they were an NPP party link but actually, the first national ID, 1995… during the Rawlings era, we were the only local company that competed,“ he said.

He also spoke of the number of foreigners registered for Ghana Card.

• Read also: We’ve uncovered thousands of fake passports, driver’s licenses, other national IDs – Margins Group

“So till date we have registered 183,000 foreigners from 216 different nationalities. So, today you can tell how many foreigners are in Ghana from each country, where they live and what they do. We are yet to get the full benefits of the data,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Margins Group said it has uncovered thousands of fake national IDs.

According to the Group, it made this discovery after harmonising data from the Ghana Card with other national identity documents including passports, health insurance cards, driver’s licenses, and others.