Dr. Kenneth Ashigbey, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, clarified that the prior SIM card registration effort was not ineffective, but rather incomplete. His comments came following an announcement by Sam Nartey George, the Minister-Designate for Communications, Digital Technology, and Innovation, regarding a new SIM card re-registration initiative aimed at addressing the issues from the earlier process. In 2022, the government mandated that SIM cardholders link their numbers to their Ghana Cards. Unfortunately, the procedure was plagued by inefficiencies, long wait times, and SIM blocks for those who did not comply.
During his vetting, Sam George criticized these challenges and pledged to introduce a more seamless system that integrates directly with the National Identification Authority (NIA) database. Speaking on Eyewitness News on Citi FM on Monday, February 3, Ashigbey explained:
“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 pointed out that the fingerprint data was not captured as accurately as the NIA’s system, stressing 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 likeliness 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. Ashigbey emphasized the need to correct this gap to ensure the new registration process is comprehensive and effective.
By: Abigail Arthur