The recent political campaign trail has been ablaze with claims and counterclaims regarding theownership and genesis of the Ghana Card. While a certain Vice President and his team have sought to claim significant credit for the success of the digital identity drive, a deep dive into the archives reveals a far more complex, messy, and fascinating history.
This is the story of how politics repeatedly overruled pragmatism, how millions of Cedis worth of data were thrown into the trash, and how a local tech visionary, Moses Baiden, outlasted both foreign consultants and shifting governmental winds to finally get the job done.
The Kufuor Era: The Europeans Who Couldn’t Deliver
Long before Dr. Bawumia became the public face of digitisation, the foundational conversations regarding a national ID were already underway. During President John Agyekum Kufuor’s tenure (2000–2008), the push for a national identity management system hit its first major political roadblock.
According to sources close to the original negotiations, tech entrepreneur Herman Chinery Hesse introduced Moses Baiden, the Managing Director of Margins Group, to the Kufuor administration. Baiden presented a robust, locally developed system ready to handle the country’s ID needs. It was an offer to build Ghanaian, for Ghanaians.
However, the government of the day opted for what was perceived as a more sophisticated European solution. The administration instead engaged unreliable European vendors. The decision would prove catastrophic. The European partners, citing funding technicalities and logistical hurdles, failed to deliver a functional mass registration system, effectively stalling the project for years .
The Mills Interregnum: IMANI vs. The NIA and the “Five Finger” Discovery
When the NDC won the 2008 elections, the political baton passed to the late Professor John Evans Atta Mills. During this period, civil society, particularly policy think-tank IMANI Africa, engaged in fierce battles with the National Identification Authority (NIA) to push for transparency and the right technical framework.
Mass registrations were eventually held in seven regions. Yet, the three northern regions were left out. The reason given was a technical revelation: an “improved” technology—one that captured all five fingerprints instead of the three or four captured previously—had been discovered.
The logical solution would have been to upgrade the existing data. Instead, a devastating policy decision was made. The NIA declared that the millions of records collected from Ghanaians in those seven regions were effectively worthless and incompatible with the “new” standard. It meant starting from scratch.
Moses Baiden and Herman Chinery Hesse pleaded with the authorities to salvage the data, arguing it could still be cleaned and used to process authentic IDs. However, their technical advice fell on the deaf ears of the NIA board at the time .
Mahama’s First Term: The Danish Lifeline
As the NDC administration transitioned into President John Mahama’s first term, the national ID card remained a white elephant. However, a quiet shift occurred in the private sector. Moses Baiden, refusing to let his dream die, persevered.
During this period, the Danish Embassy emerged as a crucial ally. A private sector sounding board, which included figures like Patrick Awuah (founder of Ashesi University) and Elizabeth Villars, convened at the Danish Embassy. This board approved initial funding to support Margins to continue its card business.
The data situation remained chaotic. The NIA, under the Mahama administration, sought a $115 million loan from the China EXIM Bank to start over—a move heavily criticized by IMANI and local tech experts like Herman Chinery-Hesse, who argued the project could cost a fraction of that amount using local talent . Ultimately, while the NDC passed the crucial L.I. 2111 (making the Ghana Card the sole ID for transactions) and did some foundational work, the interoperability and scale remained elusive .
The NPP Takeover (Nana & Bawumia): The Great Reset
When the NPP assumed power in 2017 under Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr. Bawumia, the new administration faced the same crossroads as their predecessors: build on existing foundations or start fresh.
They chose to reset the table. Despite Margins having partnered with the NIA through various arrangements, the new government—citing the need for the five-finger biometric capture and new security features—abandoned the data collected under the previous NDC administration from the seven regions.
Ghana had to register all over again. The entire population was subjected to a fresh mass registration drive. The irony was not lost on industry watchers: the “five-finger” technology that was used to justify scrapping the old data in the Mills era was now the standard, but the data itself had to be recollected from zero.
The Verdict: Promoter vs. Inventor
Today, the Ghana Card is a remarkable success. It is the bedrock of the country’s digital economy, serving as an e-passport and a bank ID. Margins Group, having started with a $100 investment three decades ago, is now hailed by the Danish government as a “powerhouse” and a model for African digital transformation .
However, as the political season heats up, a crucial distinction must be made regarding who gets the credit.
While Dr. Bawumia has been an excellent promoter and brand ambassador for the card, leveraging his digital background to push its adoption, the data shows he did not initiate the project, nor did he invent the technology.
From the Kufuor-era rejection of local talent, through the Mills-era data debacle, to the Mahama-era funding battles, Moses Baiden and his team at Margins were there—fighting, innovating, and waiting.
Dr. Bawumia inherited a system that had been legislated, litigated, and labored over for nearly two decades. He deserves credit for cutting through some of the bureaucratic red tape to get it over the finish line. But to claim sole or primary authorship ignores the ghosts of the millions of registrants whose data was thrown away, the European contractors who failed, and the local genius of Moses Baiden, who refused to let Ghana give up.
Happy Eid to those celebrating. And as the political discourse rages, let us remember: The Ghana Card is a national asset, built on the sweat of many, not the trophy of a few.
