The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Wisdom Yayra Koku Deku, has said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in opposition were never against the SIM card registration exercise.
According to the NIA, both he and the current communication minister supported SIM registration but disagreed with the process of implementation.
The NIA CEO detailed that gaps identified in the 2022 exercise made it possible for individuals to misuse Ghana Cards for the registration of multiple SIMs.
Speaking on TV3, Wisdom Yayra Koku Deku explained, “We were not against SIM card registration, we were against the process”.
He further explained that a proper SIM registration must involve three steps: identification, verification, and authentication, noting that the previous registration had only two stages.
“At best, the system confirmed the card, not the person,” he noted.
Meanwhile, President John Dramani Mahama has added his voice to the upcoming SIM registration exercise, describing the previous registration as wasteful.
According to President Mahama, there was a conflict between former Minister of Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful and the former head of the National Identification Authority (NIA), which caused the challenges in the last SIM registration exercise.
President Mahama, addressing a gathering on Thursday, March 19, 2026, stated, “Some time back, we were told to register our SIM cards, which caused great distress to Ghanaians. Even MTN had to mount canopies just to attend to everyone.”
“When that was ongoing, we didn’t know that the former Minister of Communications [Ursula Owusu] was not on speaking terms with the former head of the NIA. They had issues between them,” he disclosed
President Mahama added, “When you are undertaking a SIM registration, it is important to add it to the national registration so that a number can easily be identified and traced to the owner should that person be engaged in wrongdoing”.
“The sad part is that we didn’t do that, making the previous SIM registration exercise wasteful,” the president stated.
President Mahama further disclosed, “The new one that the Minister of Communications is about to do, the SIM will be linked to the Ghana Card, which will make it impossible to change it. Everything involving that particular SIM card will easily be traced to its owner,” he explained.
“We will do it in such a way that you will receive a code on your phone, which will demand you to write your name, Ghana card number and other details, which will directly go into the database and will directly link your SIM card to the Ghana Card. You will not need to visit or go all the way to the telcos just to register the SIM,” he noted.
“The process will be free, and it is the telcos that will bear the cost for the re-registration. All you need to do is to input your details when you receive the code,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sam Nartey George, the Minister for Communication, Innovations, and Digital Technologies, has announced that the upcoming SIM registration will be Ghana’s first with a proper biometric registration.
According to Sam George, the new SIM registration is intended to correct flaws from the old registration.
The sector minister is quoted by a GHOne news flyer to have said, “This will be the first time in Ghana’s history that we will have a proper biometric SIM registration”.
Sam George further assured Ghanaians that the upcoming SIM registration exercise will be the last.
According to him, the government rolls out a robust, technology-driven system designed to enhance convenience and eliminate fraud.