You onboarded a customer on a Ghana Card you never verified. Here is how to check one properly.

Picture the file. A Ghana Card number, a clear photo of the front of the card, a name that matches. Account opened.

Now ask what was actually checked. Nobody asked the issuer whether that number exists. Nobody compared the person at the other end of the phone with the person the card was issued to. The photo could have come from a messaging group. The card could belong to a cousin.

That account is yours now, and so is the question a regulator or bank partner will ask when it misbehaves: how did you know who this was? This guide covers what the Ghana Card is, what a regulated business is expected to check, the ways to verify one, and where each way stops.

What the Ghana Card is, and who must use it

The Ghana Card is the national identity card issued by the National Identification Authority (NIA). The NIA's own FAQ (opens in a new tab) says it is open to Ghanaian citizens of any age, at home or abroad, and to foreign nationals who are legally and permanently resident in Ghana. The same page says a card expires ten years after it is issued.

For financial services it is not one option among several. In January 2022 the Bank of Ghana announced that, from 1 July 2022, the Ghana Card would be the only identification card used for transactions at the institutions it licenses, citing Regulation 7 of the National Identity Register Regulations, 2012 (L.I. 2111). You can read that announcement on the Bank's site (opens in a new tab), and the NIA lists the regulations and their amendments on its laws and regulations page (opens in a new tab).

That notice has since been replaced. Notice No. BG/GOV/SEC/2025/36 (opens in a new tab), dated 12 November 2025 and effective 1 December 2025, keeps the Ghana Card as the sole identification document for financial transactions and adds four instructions for regulated financial institutions. In short:

• All customers must be biometrically verified, and remote onboarding must include liveness checks.

• Account holders are verified when they transact on their own account, using a risk-based approach.

• Third-party transactions need identification and verification, with records kept. Digital products and channels need multifactor authentication.

• Institutions are pointed to the BOG/FIC AML/CFT/CPF Guideline, 2025 and a supervisory guidance note on the Ghana Card for the detail.

This is the position as of October 2026. We have summarised the notice, not the guideline or guidance note behind it.

What is on the card

The NIA's FAQ lists the card's visible features. They include a dual interface chip module, a machine readable zone, contactless and e-passport symbols, and UV printing. The FAQ describes the chip as a 148k chip with 14 applets. The NIA's Ghana Card page (opens in a new tab) lists the same chip.

A machine readable zone on a card-sized document is specified in ICAO Doc 9303, Part 5 (opens in a new tab). That format is three lines of 30 characters, with check digits over the document number, the date of birth and the date of expiry, plus a composite check digit. The check digits are arithmetic. They tell you the zone was read without a mistake. They do not tell you who printed it.

Three ways to verify a Ghana Card, and what each proves

• The card itself. A capture of the front and back lets you read the printed details and compare them with what the customer typed. It proves you were shown something that looks like a Ghana Card. A good forgery, or a genuine card in the wrong hands, passes.

• The government record. Checking the number against the issuer's record answers a different question: does this identity exist, and do the name and date of birth agree? It does not prove the person in front of you is that identity. Card numbers get shared.

• A face match with liveness. Comparing a live selfie with the photo held on the record ties the person to the identity. This is the step the Bank of Ghana's notice asks for, and the one most easily skipped.

A chip read is a fourth route on documents that support it: it proves the data was signed by the issuing state. Whether you can use it depends on the document and your provider. Our guide to document checks versus government database checks goes deeper on the trade-offs.

The mistakes that let fake or borrowed cards through

• Accepting a picture of a card. An uploaded image from a gallery tells you a card photo exists somewhere. Prefer a live capture, and treat an upload as weaker evidence.

• Matching the number only. A number that exists in the record proves the identity is real. It says nothing about who typed it.

• No face match, or a face match against the wrong photo. Matching a selfie to the photo printed on the card proves the person resembles the card, and a forger controls that photo. The photo on the government record is the one worth matching.

• A selfie with no liveness. Without it, a photo of a photo can stand in for the customer.

• Verifying once, then trusting the account for good. The notice asks for verification on transactions too, on a risk basis. Onboarding is the start.

How Toden handles a Ghana Card, and where it stops

Ghana is one of five markets where Toden checks an ID against the source government database. For the Ghana Card, that looks like this.

• The ID type is ghana-card. It is a document ID, so the customer captures the front and the back.

• The details are validated against the government record. A number the record does not hold comes back with identity_not_found, and details that disagree with the record come back with gov_data_mismatch.

• When a selfie and liveness step is part of the flow, the selfie is compared with the strongest photo the verification holds. The result's facialMatchSource says which photo that was, so you can send anything weaker than gov_record to a reviewer.

• A pass carries an assurance level. A Ghana Card checked against the government record reaches gov_db. Our piece on KYC assurance levels explains how to route on it.

• An expired document fails with document_expired by default.

Now the limits, stated as limits.

• The Ghana Card's chip can be read, but only in the React Native and Flutter SDKs. No browser can talk to the chip. The same is true of a Ghanaian passport. See how e-passport chip verification works.

• A chip read is confirmed against Ghana's certificate. When a chip cannot be confirmed, the verification does not fail for that reason. It rests on the government record instead, and the assurance level stays at gov_db.

• A match against the photo printed on a document is available as a fallback. It is weaker evidence and never raises the assurance level.

• Toden reports what the checks found. Your risk policy and your records remain yours.

Data protection in Ghana

Verifying a Ghana Card means handling an ID number, a face image and a government record. The Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843) (opens in a new tab) applies. Four sections matter most to a verification process.

• Registration and notice (section 27). A data controller that intends to process personal data registers with the Data Protection Commission, and makes sure people know what is collected, why, whether it is mandatory and who receives it.

• Retention (section 24). Keep personal data no longer than the purpose needs, unless a law requires or authorises longer. Financial record-keeping rules are such a law, so write down which one you rely on.

• Security (section 28). Take appropriate technical and organisational measures against loss and unlawful access.

• Processors (section 30). A provider that processes data for you does so under a written contract that requires confidentiality and security, including a provider based outside Ghana.

Section 37 lists the categories of special personal data, and face images are not named in it. They are still personal data. Our overview of biometric data under African data protection law sets Ghana beside its neighbours.

This is not legal advice

This guide summarises public sources as we read them in October 2026. Rules change, and how they apply depends on your licence and products. Read the notices themselves and speak to counsel in Ghana before relying on it.

Want to see a Ghana Card check end to end? Open a Toden workspace (opens in a new tab) and run one in the sandbox, or see KYC coverage by country.