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Paper short abstract:

This study examines how the introduction of advanced biometric identification and registration technologies in Ghana are redefining the citizen-state relationship because of the highly bureaucratic character of the registration and identification processes associated with the Ghana Card.

Paper long abstract:

The lack of comprehensive national identification system in Ghana results in a lack of citizen registration and information systems on the population. This is reflected during elections in accusations that the political parties mobilize 'aliens' from across national borders to win elections. This creates many challenges in governance and difficulties for government to regulate and support the wider population that lie outside the formal sector. Consecutive governments have undertaken various projects since 2003 to introduce an all-inclusive national biometric identification system. This includes a failed initiative that resulted in three sector-level biometric systems for elections, health insurance, and government payroll respectively. In response to emerging problems with Ghana's fragmented identification system, the national biometric identification system project was relaunched in 2019 in the form of the Ghana Card. Even though previous registration and identification systems necessarily implied a particular kind of relationship between citizens and the state, this was not based on well informed administrative system. This paper examines the dynamics of citizen identification, registration, and certification in connection to the Ghana Card as it plays out among citizens and state bureaucrats in the district of Ketu North, situated on the Ghana-Togo border. It draws on ethnographic research into the relevant local bureaucracy on the one side and varied local citizens as ID customers on the other. The objective is to investigate the bureaucratic tendencies in registration and identification practices, and citizen contestations, as a means to understand citizen-state relationships in the geographic frontiers of the state.