The Minister for Communications, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George, has confirmed that a new nationwide SIM registration exercise will begin in the first quarter of 2026, insisting that the previous registration conducted under the former administration was technically and legally flawed.

Speaking on TV3 on Wednesday, December 3, the Minister described the earlier exercise led by former Communications Minister Ursula Owusu-Ekuful as invalid, arguing that it failed to adhere to essential biometric authentication protocols.

According to him, the previous registration did not include proper biometric verification to confirm subscriber identities against the national database.

“The registrations that were purported to have been done by Ursula Owusu and the NPP did not cross-reference the biometric they took from you against that database. Nothing of that sort was done,” he stated.

New Legislative Framework Ready

Mr. George revealed that a new Legislative Instrument (L.I.) to guide the upcoming SIM registration has been drafted and will soon be laid before Parliament. He emphasised that the exercise must be underpinned by a firm legal foundation before implementation.

“The L.I. is ready… First quarter next year, we will run it out. We are currently at the Public Procurement Authority doing the procurement of the service provider,” he noted.

He stressed that the upcoming registration is not a continuation of the previous exercise.

“We are not doing a re-registration. We are doing a SIM registration. You didn’t do any registration; the former Minister just wasted everybody’s time.”

Integration With NIA for Accurate Biometric Verification

The Minister disclosed that his Ministry has reached an agreement with the National Identification Authority (NIA) to integrate biometric systems across telcos, the National Communications Authority (NCA), and the NIA.

This integration, he said, ensures that every SIM registration will be authenticated against Ghana Card biometrics, guaranteeing accurate identity verification.

“We have worked out the integration between the Telco, the regulator, NCA and the NIA,” he announced.

Cleaning Up Previous Biometric Data

Mr. George also revealed that the Ministry is currently cleaning and synchronising biometric data collected during the previous administration’s registration exercise.

“All the biometrics they collected were just sitting in databases scattered all over the place. We have picked those databases and we are now cleaning them up and cross-referencing them with the NIA in the backend. About 80% of them have been done.”

The new registration exercise is expected to address longstanding concerns over identity fraud, unverified SIM ownership, and data inconsistencies within the telecommunications sector.