Mahama Slams Past SIM Registration as Ineffective, Announces Fresh Exercise

President John Dramani Mahama has justified plans to undertake a fresh SIM card re-registration, describing the previous exercise as flawed and lacking credibility.

Speaking during the Resetting Ghana tour in Sunyani in the Bono Region on Thursday, March 19, he noted that despite the inconvenience caused to citizens, the earlier process failed to produce any meaningful outcomes.

According to the President, the exercise was hampered by poor coordination among key institutions, particularly the Ministry of Communications and the National Identification Authority, which weakened efforts to properly link SIM cards to verified national identity data.

“If you recall, we were asked to re-register our SIM cards, and the process was very challenging. There was a disconnect between the authorities responsible, and in the end, it did not benefit Ghanaians. It was largely ineffective,” he explained.

Mr. Mahama further stated that the upcoming re-registration will be fully integrated with the Ghana Card system to ensure accurate identification of SIM card users.

He added that the new approach will enable individuals to update their registration details without the need to queue at registration centres.

His comments come after the National Communications Authority disclosed that an audit of SIM registration data between 2021 and 2023 revealed zero fingerprint matches when compared with the national identity database, raising serious concerns about the credibility of the current system.