New SIM Registration Exercise to Prioritise Consumer Protection — Sam George

Minister for Communication, Digital Technology, and Innovation, Sam Nartey George, has justified the new SIM registration exercise, stressing that the initiative is primarily aimed at protecting consumers and preventing wrongful identification.

Addressing stakeholders on the government’s planned new SIM registration exercise, he said flaws in the current SIM database have exposed innocent individuals to serious risks, including being wrongly linked to criminal activities due to identity theft and data inaccuracies.

“The Minister for Interior, who doubles as the Minister for National Security, is breathing down my neck to give him a credible SIM register because there are times when law enforcement needs to identify a person, they ask us, and based on what we have today, and then they go and pick up a wrong person.

“The person’s Ghana card was cloned and used to register a SIM that was involved in a criminal activity. So we have got huge needs that have to be dealt with,” he added.

According to Sam George, the current registration drive is not driven by procurement considerations but by the need to ensure accuracy, security and user protection.

He noted that the government is focused on building a reliable system that safeguards users while supporting law enforcement with credible data.

“At the base of this is not procurement. At the base of this is consumer protection and comfort because the real battle with the last registration was procurement.

“Today that is not what our interest is. Our interest is getting a system that works and is owned by the NCA and the NIA so I am very confident if we do this right, this will be our final,” he said.

The Minister added that the reforms are intended to restore public confidence while ensuring that consumers are protected from identity misuse and its consequences.