Samuel Nartey George
The Minister of Communications, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George, has announced that the government will introduce biometric verification as part of Ghana’s SIM registration process before the end of 2026.
Mr. George made the announcement at the Government Accountability Series at the Jubilee House in Accra yesterday.
According to the Minister, Parliament has passed the Legislative Instrument (LI) on SIM registration, paving the way for the next phase of the exercise.
Under the new system, subscribers will be required to provide biometric information, such as fingerprints, as part of the registration process.
Subscribers are expected to be given a specified period to complete the verification, with possible sanctions for those who fail to comply.
The biometric verification system is expected to strengthen subscriber identification, improve the integrity of SIM registration data and help create a more secure telecommunications environment.
The sector minister said the government was committed to ensuring that Ghana’s regulatory framework kept pace with developments in the digital space.
“The work is far from finished, and I will not pretend otherwise. But the direction is unmistakable, the results are measurable, and the resolve of this Ministry is unshaken,” he said.
The new requirement comes after several challenges with the SIM registration exercise, which began in October 2021.
The initial process required subscribers to link their SIM cards to their Ghana Cards and subsequently complete biometric registration at the customer care centres or authorised agents of their network providers.
By October 2022, about 28.96 million SIM cards had been linked to Ghana Cards, representing 67.28 per cent of the total number of SIM cards issued. However, only 18.93 million, representing 44.28 per cent, had completed both stages.
The exercise officially ended on May 31, 2023, following several extensions. However, more than 10 million subscribers had only partially completed the registration process.
At the end of the exercise, telecommunications operators began blocking unregistered SIM cards, with MTN Ghana alone blocking about 5.4 million.
The Ministry and the National Communications Authority (NCA) have since acknowledged gaps in the previous registration exercise, particularly in achieving its objectives of reducing fraud and improving public confidence in communication services.
The new biometric verification system is therefore intended to ensure that SIM cards are linked to verified identities through biometric data, making it more difficult for individuals to use fraudulent identities to register SIM cards.
By Vera Owusu Sarpong