In the wake of the announcement by the minister nominee for Communications, Digital Technology, and Innovation, Sam Nartey George, regarding the re-registration of SIM cards, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Dr. Kenneth Ashigbey, has clarified that the previous SIM card registration exercise was incomplete.
Mr. Sam George made the announcement during his vetting, where he criticised the previous approach. He assured that the new process would be more logical, seamless, and technology-driven to avoid the long queues that characterised the initial exercise.
In 2022, the government required SIM cardholders to link their numbers with their Ghana Cards. However, the process faced challenges, including inefficiencies, long queues, and SIM blockages for those who failed to comply.
Sam George reiterated that the re-registration was in the best interest of Ghanaians, ensuring secure and reliable telecommunications services.
“We will do a proper SIM re-registration again, and this time, there will be no queues because common sense will prevail, and we will use technology to do it,” he assured.
In response to the announcement, Dr. Kenneth Ashigbey, speaking on Citi FM, explained that the previous exercise was incomplete.
“I wouldn’t say it is useless. I would say it was incomplete. The thing about it is the fact that the biometric data that was collected was not reading properly,” he said.
He pointed out that the fingerprint data was not captured accurately as the NIA’s system, emphasising the importance of using the NIA database as the “single point of truth.”
“What we should have done was use the NIA database to complete the cycle,” Ashigbey noted.
He explained that while the initial phase of SIM registration verified data against the NIA database, the second phase—biometric verification—was flawed. “We do the liveliness test, we do the likeness test, we collect the biometric data, but we don’t compare it with the single point of truth, which is the NIA database,” he stated.
Dr. Ashigbey stressed the need to address this gap to ensure the new registration process is comprehensive and effective.
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