Ghana’s government has decided that telecom operators will fund the entire SIM card registration exercise. Communications Minister Samuel Nartey George made this announcement during an interview on Channel One TV on Monday.
He emphasized that this move is part of a broader strategy to strengthen telecom services and ensure industry accountability. “They will pay for it. I will make them pay for it,” he said. He also revealed that a Legislative Instrument (LI) will soon be laid before Parliament to give the policy legal support.
Mr. George distinguished this registration process from the earlier re-registration initiative led by Ursula Owusu-Ekuful. He criticized the previous effort for failing to clean up the system and made it clear that his approach is different. “I’m not doing a re-registration. I am doing a SIM registration,” he stressed.
The upcoming exercise will rely entirely on the Ghana Card, which he described as the “single source of truth.” According to him, this method will produce accurate and centralized data, unlike past attempts that faced issues with inconsistency.
He also provided some context. The last legal framework for SIM registration came in 2010, under then-Minister Haruna Iddrisu. At the time, Ghana had not yet introduced the Ghana Card, making identity validation less reliable.
“This time, we have the tools to do it right,” Mr. George said confidently. By placing the SIM registration cost on telcos, the government hopes to streamline the process and avoid unnecessary burdens on citizens.
