The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Ing. Dr. Kenneth Ashigbey, has reiterated the importance of stakeholder engagement to ensure the success of the proposed SIM Re-registration exercise.
According to Ing. Dr. Ashigbey, it is critical that any new exercise follows the approach taken in the implementation of the much-celebrated Mobile Money Interoperability service, which saw all stakeholders (public and private) coming to the table to deliberate on the best way forward.
He made the remarks in an interview with the Chamber News Desk in Accra, Ghana.
“If you go back to the last one, the way the former Vice-President had envisaged it, where he started it with, a meeting of all stakeholders and a plan that we work together as stakeholders to resolve it. That is the way to go. That’s the way we did the Mobile Money Interoperability that has become so successful that people praise it. That was done through private-public partnership. The Regulators working together with the operators to ensure that this was going to be done”.
“So I’m of the conviction that the way the Minister-designate wants to go by the engagement is the way to go”, he added.
While debunking suggestions that the old SIM registration exercise was “useless”, Ing. Dr. Ashigbey suggested that the old exercise can be improved upon with the new approach that has been put forward by the Minister-designate for Communications, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel George.
The Minister-Designate revealed plans for a new SIM re-registration process to rectify flaws from the previous exercise.
Previous SIM Registration Exercise
In 2022, the government mandated all SIM cardholders to link their numbers to their Ghana Cards, aiming to enhance security and curb fraudulent activities. However, the process was fraught with long queues, operational inefficiencies, and SIM blockages for non-compliance.
During his vetting, Sam George criticized these challenges and pledged to introduce a more efficient system that would integrate directly with the National Identification Authority (NIA) database.
Dr. Ashigbey in an interview on Accra based Citi FM, emphasized the necessity of using the NIA database as the “single point of truth” to ensure a more reliable registration process. “We should have integrated the NIA database from the start to complete the cycle,” he asserted.
He highlighted that while the first phase of the registration cross-checked data with the NIA, the biometric verification phase fell short, as it failed to align fingerprint data with the NIA’s authoritative records. “We conduct liveliness and likeness tests, collect biometric data, but don’t compare it with the NIA database,” he explained.
As discussions around the new SIM re-registration continue, Dr. Ashigbey has stressed the importance of addressing these shortcomings to ensure a seamless, comprehensive process. The government’s new approach, focusing on deeper integration with the NIA system, is expected to correct the flaws and build a more secure, efficient framework for SIM card registration.
