The Director-General of the National Communications Authority (NCA), Edmund Yirenkyi Fianko, says the government’s planned nationwide SIM re-registration exercise is intended to correct irregularities identified during earlier registration processes.
Speaking in an interview on Channel One TV on Monday, March 9, he explained that the new exercise aims to create a more reliable and credible subscriber database in Ghana.
Ing. Fianko said the upcoming exercise will be the third official SIM registration process carried out in the country.
According to him, the first exercise conducted in 2011 faced major challenges because there was no effective system to verify identification documents submitted by subscribers.
“The first one was done in 2011, but there was no verification of the IDs. What we had was manual verification of a few cases,” he said.
He explained that the second registration exercise attempted to improve the process by requiring subscribers to use the national ID card issued by the National Identification Authority.
However, the process was not fully completed because the biometric verification stage was never implemented.
“There was supposed to be verification of the ID card. One part was done, but the second phase, which involved biometric validation, did not happen,” he noted.
Ing. Fianko said the previous exercise also uncovered several irregularities, including the use of fake identification documents and fraudulent photographs.
“There were cases where the same name was used by different individuals, and we also saw fake IDs being used to register SIM cards,” he said.
He explained that the new registration exercise is intended to create a system where subscriber details can be verified against a trusted national database.
“Our goal is to have a single source of truth and ensure that the person presenting the ID is the actual owner,” he added.
Ing. Fianko also assured that subscribers will not be required to pay any fees during the upcoming SIM re-registration exercise.
