Ms. Constance Pokua Osei, Tema West NIA Director disclosed this at the General Assembly of the Tema West Municipal Assembly (TWMA) and out of a total of 13,442 cards printed for the area, 8,749 had been issued with 4,648 representing 35.58 percent yet to be collected

Ms. Osei added that the total enrolment between November 2021 and May 27, 2022, was 3,931.

She said when the deadline for the registration of all sim cards with the Ghana Card was extended to July, residents stopped going for their printed cards, adding that in a day only about 20 people go for their cards while an average 15 people go for the registration.

She added that it had also led to low enrolment as the long queues that used to be seen at the office had vanished with staff virtually hoping that it would improve daily.

“Now there is no queue, people just walk in and have their data captured in no time, sometimes in mornings we even have less than 10 people available to collect their cards.

“We still have over 4,000 cards lying there to be issued, and they are just not coming. I understand them, it is frustrating after visiting the office many times and the cards were not ready,” she stated.

She, therefore, pleaded with Assembly Members to inform their residents that the cards were ready.

On other challenges, Ms. Osei said bigger office accommodation and staffing was a problem, as currently the premises they were operating from was small.

She said there were only four members of staff, which she said were not enough, and therefore, appealed for some National Service Personnel to be attached to the office.

Meanwhile, Assembly Members of Tema West have expressed misgivings about the conduct of some officers of the NIA in the municipality, saying their customer relations were poor.

Mr. Kwesi Poku Bosompem, Assemblyman for Sakumono Electoral Area, and Tema West New Patriotic Party (NPP) Chairman described the conduct of the workers at the NIA office as rude.

Mr. Bosompem, who is a former Presiding Member of the Assembly said staff and contract workers of the office needed to be re-oriented and given customer service skills to relate better with the public.

Mr. Henry Ubor, Assemblyman for Klagon said he has been to the NIA office many times to monitor the queue for residents of Klagon to go and register and could say that their services were poor.

Mr. Ubor said: “If the NIA Tema West Director was reporting to them that people were not going for their cards, it was not true as most people were turned away. It is not like the people are not going for the cards, they have rejected the cards to them because anytime they go and queue, they are turned away.”