About 191 financial institutions have access to NIA data – Prof Attafuah

The National Identification Authority (NIA) has confirmed that approximately 191 financial institutions, encompassing Universal Banks, Rural Banks, and Savings and Loan companies, now have access to its data.

In an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show on Friday, February 2, Prof. Kenneth Attafuah, the Executive Secretary of the NIA, disclosed that these institutions have seamlessly integrated into the Authority’s system.

He emphasized that this integration facilitates effective identity verification of clients by these financial entities to enable the transfer of funds from their bank accounts to mobile money wallets.

His comments come after complaints from individuals about fees charged for transferring money between bank accounts and mobile money wallets with the same details.

John Awuah, head of the Ghana Association of Bankers, linked the fees to inconsistencies in Ghana Card details between MoMo and bank accounts. He explained that discrepancies trigger the system to treat individuals differently and apply charges.

However, Prof. Attafuah highlighted that the shared information encompasses essential details such as names, birth dates, gender, and nationality which does not give room for any inconsistency.

During the interview with sit-in host Caleb Kudah, Prof. Attafuah specifically mentioned, “I can tell you that the Bank of Ghana, all 24 universal banks in the country, 145 rural banks in Ghana some savings and loans companies, about eight of them and some centres, approximately 14 have been onboarded unto the NIA’s personal verification system platform enabling these institutions to verify the identities of persons who transact business for them in real-time.”

He further elaborated that “as agreed with their regulator that is the Central Bank, we give them personal information that a client is required to give for KYC [Know-your-customer] and in fulfilment of the bank’s anti-money laundering rule. So the personal information that we give includes the surname, the first name, the previous name, date of birth, gender, nationality, residential address, digital address code and telephone number,” Prof Attafuah stated.

 

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