Samuel Nartey George, Minister of Communications, Digital Technology, and Innovations, has announced that the government will launch a new SIM card registration exercise in the first quarter of 2026.
Speaking in an interview on TV3 on Wednesday, December 3, the Minister criticized the previous SIM registration conducted under the former NPP government and its minister, calling it invalid. He emphasized that the earlier process did not properly cross-check biometrics with the database.
“The registrations supposedly done by Ursula Owusu and the NPP did not cross reference the biometric data against any database. No such verification was carried out,” Sam George said.
He confirmed that the Legislative Instrument (L.I.) governing the new SIM registration is finalized and will soon be submitted to Parliament for approval.
“The L.I. is ready. We are taking a careful approach. By the first quarter of next year, we will roll out the registration. We are currently working with the Public Procurement Authority to select a service provider for this exercise,” he explained.
Sam George clarified that this will not be a re-registration, but a fresh SIM registration, stating, “You did not do any real registration before. The previous minister just wasted people’s time.”
The Ministry has also collaborated with the National Identification Authority (NIA) to ensure biometric data matches individuals accurately for smooth registration.
“We have coordinated with the Interior Minister and NIA’s head, Yayra Koku, to integrate operations between the telecom companies, the regulator (NCA), and the NIA. The biometric data previously collected by the NPP was scattered across various databases. We have consolidated and are now cleaning and cross-referencing them with NIA’s database. About 80% of this process is complete,” he added.
Story by: Mercy Addai Turkson #ahotoronline.com