The Director-General of the National Communications Authority (NCA), Edmund Yirenkyi Fianko, has stated that the government’s planned nationwide SIM re-registration exercise is aimed at addressing flaws identified in earlier registration efforts and creating a more dependable subscriber database.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The government recently announced plans to begin a new SIM re-registration process across the country.
Speaking in an interview on Channel One TV on Monday, March 9, Ing. Fianko said the upcoming exercise will be the third official SIM registration carried out in Ghana. He explained that the first exercise, conducted in 2011, faced major challenges because there was no proper system in place to verify identification documents submitted by mobile subscribers.
According to him, the process relied largely on manual checks in only a few cases, making it difficult to confirm the authenticity of the IDs used.
The second registration exercise attempted to improve the system by requiring subscribers to register their SIM cards using the national ID issued by the National Identification Authority (NIA).
However, Ing. Fianko said the exercise could not be fully completed because the planned biometric verification stage was never implemented.
He explained that although part of the ID verification process was carried out, the second phase—which involved validating the biometric data of cardholders—was not executed due to a lack of alignment between policymakers and the NIA.
The NCA boss revealed that several irregularities were later discovered in the previous registration exercise. These included instances where fake photographs and fraudulent identities were used to register SIM cards.
He noted that there were also cases where the same name was used for different individuals, as well as situations where counterfeit identification documents were presented during registration.
Ing. Fianko said the new re-registration exercise seeks to create a system where subscriber information can be properly verified against a trusted national database.
He added that the goal is to establish a “single source of truth” to ensure that the identification details provided are accurate and that the individual presenting the ID is the legitimate owner.
He also assured the public that subscribers will not be required to pay any fee during the upcoming SIM re-registration process.