Bank of Ghana Makes the Ghana Card the Sole KYC Identifier for Banking
A 2026 Bank of Ghana Supervisory Guidance Note mandates the Ghana Card as the only identification document for onboarding, with biometric verification against the national register.
What Changed
The Bank of Ghana (BoG) issued a revised Supervisory Guidance Note on use of the Ghana Card that took immediate effect, replacing June 2022 guidance. It designates the Ghana Card as the sole identification document for onboarding customers and mandates full digital onboarding with real-time verification against the National Identification Authority (NIA) database. Identity must be confirmed by biometric authentication, either against the secure chip on the card or against the National Identity Register, rather than by visual inspection alone. The Note reinforces the NIA database as central to KYC, Customer Due Diligence, and Anti-Money Laundering compliance across the regulated sector.
Who It Affects
All BoG-licensed and regulated institutions, including banks, fintechs, mobile-money operators, and payment service providers onboarding Ghanaian customers. Any onboarding flow still relying on passports, driver's licences, or voter cards as primary ID must be reworked. By fixing a single biometric-backed credential as the standard, the BoG removes ambiguity from customer due diligence and raises the baseline for what counts as verified identity in Ghana's financial system.
What to Do
Reconfigure onboarding so the Ghana Card is the primary credential, and integrate real-time verification against the NIA database with biometric authentication, either NFC chip read or register match. Retire acceptance of secondary IDs as standalone proof and update AML and CDD procedures to reference the Guidance Note. Handle card data in line with the Data Protection Act, 2012, including consent capture. Combining chip verification with biometric liveness gives you an onboarding record that is both compliant and audit-ready.
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