Sam Nartey George, the Minister-Designate for Communications, Digital Technology, and Innovation, outlined plans to introduce a new SIM card registration procedure in order to resolve problems that arose during the last exercise.
A SIM card re-registration was carried out by the previous government in 2022, and cardholders had to go to different NMO offices to connect their SIM cards to their Ghana Cards. Noncompliance resulted in the blocking of SIM cards or the termination of necessary services.
George attacked the previous government’s approach during his screening by Parliament’s Appointments Committee, pointing out in particular the lengthy lines and inefficiencies Ghanaians had to deal with throughout the registration procedure.
He gave the committee his word that the new SIM registration process will be more streamlined and effective under his direction, using technology to compare data with the database of the National Identification Authority (NIA). For Ghanaians, this method would streamline the procedure and do away with the necessity for lengthy lines.
“The actions that happened under the last government were very at par with common sense and logic. We have a National Identification Authority that holds and sits as our national repository of biometric data. I think it was wickedness to the highest order to subject Ghanaians to long hours of queue, taking away productive man hours and affecting our economy to go and queue again and resubmit biometrics simply because egos could not be managed.
“We will do a proper sim re-registration exercise again but this time, nobody is going to queue. Because common sense will prevail, expertise will prevail and logic will work.
“The MNOs hold a certain set of dates. We will use technology to cross-reference that against the NIA’s database and all biometric databases and only instances where there is a disparity would require you to visit an MNO shop.
“Because today, as we speak, the telcos cannot truly verify who is holding their sim car. It is even in their own benefit for us to do this process and do it properly,” he stated.
