Koforidua, Sept. 29, GNA - Registration under the National Identification Authority (NIA) which began in Koforidua Municipality about a week ago has been smooth. Mr Joseph Owusu, New Juaben Municipal Officer of NIA, said "the exercise started on Monday September 22 and no incident has been recorded."

He was briefing Mr Kwadwo Affram-Asiedu, Eastern Regional Minister, during a tour of some registration centres in Koforidua. Mr Owusu said there were 101 registration centres in the municipality and was optimistic everybody would be registered. He explained that queues at the centres were the result of collation of data from the people and gave the assurance that everyone in the municipality would be covered by the end of the programme. Mr Affram-Asiedu expressed appreciation at the level of awareness and conduct of the exercise in the Region. He said the enthusiasm of the public to participate in the exercise indicated that they were well-informed and understood the need for a national identification programme. Mr Affram-Asiedu urged the officials to evolve measures to ensure the collation of data was curtailed to ensure the people did not stay long in the queues.

He commended the NIA for overcoming some of the initial problems faced during the exercise in some Regions adding "your performance has improved since no incident has been recorded in the Region so far". Mr John Easmon, Eastern Regional Coordinator of NIA, said the exercise in the Region had been scheduled in two phases, and the first phase for 10 districts would end on Thursday October 2. He said the second phase would continue in the remaining 10 districts in the Region. 29 Sept. 08