All businesses and other institutions in Ghana must now use a biometric app scanner to check national identity cards under new rules aimed at strengthening security and curbing fraud.

Until now many of them have just visually checked or photocopied the card for their records, which has made it possible for criminals to impersonate someone.

All Ghanaian citizens and foreign residents in the country must carry a plastic biometric national ID known as the “Ghana Card”.

Introduced over the last decade, the Ghana Card has become central to daily life in the West African nation and is needed to access banking services, register Sim cards and to obtain a passport or driver’s licence.

The biometric data captured on the card by the country’s National Identification Authority (NIA) includes 10 fingerprints, iris scans as well as a photograph and signature.

In future those checking the card will have to use a mobile phone app that checks that data after scanning the card.

“It is now an offence to photocopy or visually inspect a Ghana Card for the purpose of transaction. Biometric verification is now mandatory,” said Wisdom Yayra Koku Deku, the NIA chief, in a statement.

Organisations that continue using photocopies or visual ID checks risk prosecution, with fines of up to 24,000 Ghanaian cedis (about $2,100 or £1,550). Individuals face fines of up to 6,000 Ghanaian cedis (about $525 or £390), NIA said.

The agency urged organisations that were not yet connected to its digital identity verification app to begin the process immediately.

Deku said the government would, in the coming days, brief the public on the implementation of the amended regulations and measures to ensure compliance.

Additional reporting by Thomas Naadi in Accra