The government’s upcoming nationwide SIM re-registration exercise has been prompted by irregularities detected in previous registration processes, the National Communications Authority (NCA) Director-General, Edmund Yirenkyi Fianko, has revealed.

Ing. Fianko explained that the new exercise aims to correct past errors and establish a more reliable database of mobile subscribers.

The move follows a recent government announcement indicating plans to roll out the nationwide initiative.

According to the NCA boss, this will be Ghana’s third official SIM registration process.

The first exercise, conducted in 2011, faced significant challenges due to the absence of an effective system for verifying identification documents submitted by subscribers.

“The challenge with it is that there was no verification at all of the IDs. What we did was a manual verification of some limited cases along the way,” he said while speaking on ‘Point of View’ on Channel 1 TV.

The second exercise sought to improve the process by requiring subscribers to register their SIM cards using the national identification card issued by the National Identification Authority (NIA).

However, Ing. Fianko noted that the exercise could not be fully completed because the planned biometric verification phase was never implemented.

“There was supposed to be verification of the ID card; we did one part of it, but the second part didn’t happen. The policymaker, NIA, couldn’t get alignment to do the second phase, which was the validation of the biometric,” he explained.

The NCA boss disclosed that irregularities uncovered during the previous registration exercise included cases where fraudulent photographs and identities were used to register SIM cards. “There are cases, including fake photos, where the same name is used by a different person. We saw fake IDs used to register,” he said.

Ing. Fianko emphasized that the upcoming exercise is designed to create a credible system where subscriber details can be properly authenticated against a trusted national database.

“What we want to do is to have a single source of truth. We want to ensure the ID details are correct and that the person who brought the ID is indeed the person,” he said.

He also assured the public that subscribers will not be required to pay for the SIM re-registration exercise, underlining the government’s commitment to strengthening the telecommunications sector and ensuring the integrity of subscriber data.