The NIA has confirmed government's decision to pay for the design
It has emerged that the Government of Ghana, in 2017, paid what has been described as a hefty amount to a French company for the design rights of the Ghana Card despite paying the company for their services in 2008.
This was revealed by the Honorary Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simmons, in a Twitter post which has since been responded
"How many are even aware that until recently the Ghana Card brand design itself was not even owned by Ghana? That it was owned by a French company & the country had to pay to get it? When Civil Society scrutinises your govt, be grateful. There's a war for the soul of your country," he wrote on Twitter.
In their response to the statement by the policy analyst, the NIA labelled Bright Simmons' claims as "a mix of half-truth, insinuation, self-praise and alarmism."
"The artwork for the Ghana 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. The said artwork is the same one used for Ghana Cards issued under the Foreigner Identification Management System (FIMS) to qualified foreigners lawfully resident in Ghana and the current generation of Ghana Cards;
"Under the contract, SAGEM designed, built and supplied to the Government of Ghana a technical platform for the Ghana Card to be operated by NIA. A term of the contract was that the artwork produced by SAGEM was exclusively for the use of the Republic of Ghana. SAGEM always held the artwork for and on behalf of the Government of Ghana, and it could not sell or otherwise pass it on to any person or entity. The artwork had to be designed by a facility with the certification to produce the high-level security artwork required, (the same certification level needed for the design and production of currency). By 2017, as a result of changes in corporate ownership, IDEMIA became the successor of SAGEM, and owned the rights to the Ghana card artwork," the NIA explained.
The NIA said the Government of Ghana, although reserving the privilege to pay for the Ghana Card artwork, did not do so until 2017, when it finally did so.
"Accordingly, the NIA bought the artwork from IDEMIA, the successor of SAGEM MORPHO, which could not have used it for any other purpose. 'This situation is akin to the cedi which is designed for Ghana by a third party but cannot be used by the designer for any other country (even if Ghana has not paid for it).
"NIA acquired the artwork because it wanted to have sovereign control over it, multi-nationalise it with the ECOWAS Card, and get IMS II to evolve it in the best interest of Ghana," the authority said.
It added that "it is both wrong and ignorant for Bright Simmons to "suggest that the historic retention of the artwork (brand design) by a French company has any significance."
But in a reaction to the NIA's response, IMANI has put out a statement describing the response as failing to deny the actual facts of the claim made by Bright Simmons.
According to the policy think tank, the NIA rather corroborated the claim.
IMANI stated that the Government of Ghana did a disservice by failing to ensure the contract signed with the company enforced direct ownership of the brand design.
"Let us repeat for emphasis: for more than five years after Ghana had passed various measures, and eventually a law in 2012, forcing every act of citizenship in Ghana to be expressible only through the Ghana Card, the design rights of this vaunted instrument were actually in the hands of a foreign company. If it had no claim to it, we wouldn't have had to pay money to secure the rights. The fact that we had to pay them off means that it could have refused our terms and held us hostage. We should all allow that to sink in, slowly.
Read further IMANI's full response to the NIA below:
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The NIA has confirmed government's decision to pay for the design
