Identity/KYC Verification in Ghana

Ghana Card, Voter ID & Passport

Verify a Ghanaian identity document (Ghana Card, Voter ID, or Passport) and retrieve the holder's identity details including name, date of birth, and gender.

Prerequisites

You'll need an API key. See Quickstart or Authentication if you don't have one yet.

Note

Verification endpoints use an API key in the X-API-Key header, not a Bearer token. Verification POST requests also require an Idempotency-Key header.

Supported document types

Document	`idType`	Notes
Ghana Card	`ghana_card`	National identity card issued by the National Identification Authority (NIA). Most widely used Ghanaian ID.
Voter ID	`voter_id`	Voter identification card issued by the Electoral Commission.
Passport	`passport`	Ghanaian passport issued by the Ghana Immigration Service.

All three return the same response shape. Only the request idType and idNumber format differ.

Make the verification request

Submit the document via the identity verification endpoint. Set country to GH and idType to one of the values above.

Ghana Card

Terminal

curl -X POST https://api.lira.com/api/v1/verify/identity \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: YOUR_IDEMPOTENCY_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "country": "GH",
    "idType": "ghana_card",
    "idNumber": "GHA-123456789-0"
  }'

Voter ID

Terminal

curl -X POST https://api.lira.com/api/v1/verify/identity \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: YOUR_IDEMPOTENCY_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "country": "GH",
    "idType": "voter_id",
    "idNumber": "1234567890"
  }'

Passport

Terminal

curl -X POST https://api.lira.com/api/v1/verify/identity \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: YOUR_IDEMPOTENCY_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "country": "GH",
    "idType": "passport",
    "idNumber": "G1234567"
  }'

Request body fields

Field	Type	Required	Description
`country`	string	Yes	Always `GH`.
`idType`	string	Yes	One of `ghana_card`, `voter_id`, `passport`.
`idNumber`	string	Yes	The document number. See format requirements below.
`mode`	string	No	`sync` (default). Async mode is not yet available for Ghana identity.
`validation`	object	No	Optional fields to cross-check against the document record. See validation section below.

idNumber format requirements

`idType`	Format
`ghana_card`	6–20 alphanumeric characters and dashes (e.g. `GHA-123456789-0`).
`voter_id`	6–12 digits.
`passport`	6–12 alphanumeric characters.

Optional validation (cross-check)

You can include a validation object to check whether specific caller-provided fields match the registry record. The response will include a validation object indicating whether each submitted field matched, and the verification status becomes inconclusive if any field does not match.

Terminal

curl -X POST https://api.lira.com/api/v1/verify/identity \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: YOUR_IDEMPOTENCY_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "country": "GH",
    "idType": "ghana_card",
    "idNumber": "GHA-123456789-0",
    "validation": {
      "firstName": "Kwame",
      "lastName": "Mensah",
      "dateOfBirth": "1990-04-12"
    }
  }'

Validation field	Type	Match rule
`firstName`	string	Case-insensitive, trimmed.
`lastName`	string	Case-insensitive, trimmed.
`dateOfBirth`	string	Exact match. Format `YYYY-MM-DD`.

Note

Cross-check fields are never persisted on the verification record and never logged. They are compared in-memory against the registry response and only the boolean match result is stored.

Read the result

Successful verification

JSON

{
  "id": "c3d4e5f6-...-...-...-...",
  "status": "success",
  "verificationType": "GHANA_CARD",
  "idType": "ghana_card",
  "country": "GH",
  "identifier": "GHA-123456789-0",
  "verifiedAt": "2026-05-26T10:00:00.000Z",
  "origin": "api",
  "verified": true,
  "firstName": "Kwame",
  "lastName": "Mensah",
  "middleName": "Kofi",
  "dateOfBirth": "1990-04-12",
  "gender": "M",
  "validation": null
}

Inconclusive verification (cross-check mismatch)

When you include validation and at least one submitted field does not match the registry record, status is inconclusive and validation.<field>.match reports per-field results.

JSON

{
  "id": "c3d4e5f6-...-...-...-...",
  "status": "inconclusive",
  "verificationType": "GHANA_CARD",
  "idType": "ghana_card",
  "country": "GH",
  "identifier": "GHA-123456789-0",
  "verifiedAt": "2026-05-26T10:00:00.000Z",
  "origin": "api",
  "verified": false,
  "firstName": "Kwame",
  "lastName": "Mensah",
  "middleName": "Kofi",
  "dateOfBirth": "1990-04-12",
  "gender": "M",
  "validation": {
    "firstName": { "value": "NotKwame", "match": false },
    "lastName":  { "value": "Mensah",   "match": true },
    "dateOfBirth": { "value": "1990-04-12", "match": true }
  }
}

Failed verification

JSON

{
  "id": "c3d4e5f6-...-...-...-...",
  "status": "failed",
  "verificationType": "GHANA_CARD",
  "idType": "ghana_card",
  "country": "GH",
  "identifier": "GHA-000000000-0",
  "verifiedAt": "2026-05-26T10:00:00.000Z",
  "origin": "api",
  "error": {
    "code": "IDENTIFIER_NOT_FOUND",
    "message": "No identity record found"
  }
}

Response fields

Field	Type	Description
`id`	string	Unique verification ID.
`status`	string	`success`, `inconclusive`, `failed`, or `error`.
`verificationType`	string	One of `GHANA_CARD`, `GHANA_VOTER_ID`, `GHANA_PASSPORT`.
`idType`	string	The `idType` you submitted.
`country`	string	Always `GH`.
`identifier`	string	The document number you submitted.
`verifiedAt`	string	ISO 8601 timestamp.
`origin`	string	`api` (API-key requests) or `dashboard` (logged-in dashboard requests).
`verified`	boolean	`true` only when `status` is `success`.
`firstName`	string	First name as recorded by the registry. May be `null`.
`lastName`	string	Last name as recorded by the registry. May be `null`.
`middleName`	string	Middle name. May be `null` or empty.
`dateOfBirth`	string	Date of birth, `YYYY-MM-DD`. May be `null` (notably for Passport records).
`gender`	string	`M` or `F`. May be `null`.
`validation`	object	Present only when `validation` was included in the request. Contains per-field match results.
`error`	object	Present when `status` is `failed` or `error`.
`error.code`	string	Machine-readable failure code. See error handling table below.
`error.message`	string	Human-readable description.

Ghana-specific notes

A Ghana Card number is issued by the National Identification Authority (NIA) and is the most reliable identity document for KYC. The standard format is GHA-XXXXXXXXX-X but variations exist.
Voter ID numbers reflect the Electoral Commission's current state. A reissued voter card may resolve to the same person under a new number. Old numbers will fail.
Passport records may omit dateOfBirth and middleName; treat both as optional in your downstream code.
Date of birth on the registry record is the source of truth. If your form collects DOB and you use the validation.dateOfBirth cross-check, a mismatch is a strong fraud signal. Surface it to a manual review queue.

Error handling

`error.code`	Cause	Action
`IDENTIFIER_NOT_FOUND`	Document number not found in the registry	Ask the user to check the number is correct
`INVALID_REQUEST`	Submitted data was rejected by the registry (e.g. malformed number)	Validate format client-side before submitting
`INCONCLUSIVE`	Cross-check fields did not match the registry record	Surface mismatched fields from `validation` to a manual review queue
`PROVIDER_RATE_LIMITED`	Too many requests in a short window	Back off and retry; consider request batching
`PROVIDER_UNAVAILABLE`	Upstream registry is temporarily unreachable	Retry with exponential backoff

For the full error code reference, see Errors.

Next steps

Identity Verification Overview

Supported identity document types and countries

BVN in Nigeria

Verify Nigerian Bank Verification Numbers

Bank Account in Ghana

Verify Ghanaian bank accounts

Errors

Complete error code reference

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