Ghana Card Details on Payroll: Salary Suspended or ePayslip Locked? How to Fix Your NIA Record

BySammy Mensah

If your September salary never arrived, your Ghana Card details on the government payroll may be the reason. In September 2026, the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD) suspended salaries for 2,777 public sector employees across 25 institutions because they had no valid Ghana Card information on the payroll system. The next payday is Monday, 26 October, so affected workers are asking one question: how do I fix my record and get paid?

This is an independent guide. This website is not affiliated with CAGD, the Government of Ghana or the National Identification Authority. The steps below follow CAGD’s published process for correcting payroll records.

Why CAGD Suspended These Salaries

In a circular dated 24 August 2026, CAGD warned that government employees without valid National Identification Authority (NIA) details captured on the payroll system would have their salaries suspended from 15 September 2026. The directive was part of preparations for a nationwide employee re-verification exercise.

The trigger was the upgraded Employee Payslip (e-Payslip) platform. After its rollout, CAGD found that some NIA numbers captured on the payroll did not match employees’ records at the NIA, while other workers had no NIA details captured at all. The mismatches also left some employees unable to access their payslips.

The warning was not empty. In a letter dated 25 September 2026, Controller and Accountant-General Kwasi Agyei confirmed that CAGD had not paid September salaries for 2,777 employees across 25 institutions, from the Ghana Education Service and Ghana Health Service to the Judicial Service and the Office of the President. “We didn’t pay them for September because they don’t have Ghana Card [information] on the system,” he told The Fourth Estate.

How to Check If You Are Affected

Start with your payslip and your bank account. If your September salary did not arrive and you could not generate or access your ePayslip around the same time, a payroll record problem is the most likely cause.

  • Ask your institution’s HR office whether your name appears on CAGD’s list of employees flagged as having “No NIA” details. CAGD sent these lists to the corporate email accounts of affected institutions.
  • Check whether the Ghana Card number on the payroll matches the number on your physical card. A single wrong digit is enough to flag a mismatch.
  • If you can log in to the GoG ePay Services portal, check your ePayslip for September to confirm whether it was generated.

How to Fix Your NIA Record

You cannot fix this yourself on the portal. Payroll records are corrected through your institution, not by the employee directly. Here is the process CAGD set out:

  1. Contact your institution’s HR department and confirm exactly what is wrong with your record: a missing NIA number, or a number that does not match NIA records.
  2. Give HR your correct Ghana Card number as printed on your card. Do not recite it from memory; read it off the card.
  3. HR corrects your NIA number on the payroll system.
  4. You submit an application for correction or insertion of your NIA details, and HR forwards it together with a cover letter from the head of your institution authorising the correction. The documents go to CAGD for validation.
  5. You do not need to submit a physical copy of your Ghana Card. Under Regulation 9 of the National Identity Register (Amended) Regulations, 2026 (L.I. 2523), physical copies of NIA cards are no longer required for submission and inspection.

One warning: never share your Ghana Card number, staff number, password or OTP with anyone who contacts you offering to “fix” your payroll record. CAGD corrects records through HR departments and institutions only.

How Long Will Restoration Take?

CAGD has not published a timeline for restoring suspended salaries, and the reports do not promise a specific date. Restoration follows the same validation process as the correction: your documents go to CAGD, CAGD validates them, and your record is cleared. Ask your HR office whether your application has been submitted and validated, and keep checking your ePayslip. Do not assume the October payday will include you until your record is confirmed corrected.

Will the Missed Salary Be Paid?

The reports reviewed do not say whether September salaries for the 2,777 suspended workers will be paid as arrears once records are fixed. That is a question for your HR office or payroll unit once your correction is validated. Keep a record of the missed payment in the meantime.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Having a card is not enough. Your NIA number must be captured on the payroll system and must match your NIA records exactly. If HR never captured it, or captured it with an error, CAGD flags your record the same way.

No. The correction runs through your institution’s HR department, which submits your application with a cover letter from the head of the institution to CAGD for validation.

No. Under Regulation 9 of the National Identity Register (Amended) Regulations, 2026 (L.I. 2523), physical copies of NIA cards are no longer required for submission and inspection.

Ask your HR office whether CAGD has validated your correction, and check whether your ePayslip for the following month is generated. Your payslip reappearing is the practical sign that your payroll record is back in order.

The reports do not confirm this. Ask your HR or payroll office about arrears once your correction is validated, and keep a record of the missed payment.

Sources: The Fourth Estate (9 October 2026; 2,777 employees, letter dated 25 September 2026); Citi Newsroom and MyJoyOnline (CAGD circular of 24 August 2026; 15 September 2026 suspension; HR cover-letter process; Regulation 9, L.I. 2523). Last updated: 19 October 2026

Sammy Mensah works as an Accounts Assistant with the Ghana Education Service, handling payroll-related processes as part of his daily work in the public sector. That hands-on experience with government payroll systems is what led him to start GoG ePay Services Guide, a site built to help fellow employees register, log in, and manage their ePayslip without the confusion many people run into on the new portal. Every guide here is based on actually going through the process, not secondhand information, and is updated whenever CAGD changes something on their end. GoG ePay Service Guide is an independent, informational site and isn't affiliated with CAGD or the Government of Ghana.

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