President Mahama Criticizes Past SIM Registration, Promises More Credible Re-Registration System

President John Dramani Mahama has defended plans for a fresh SIM card re-registration exercise, arguing that the previous process was ineffective and lacked credibility.

Speaking during his Resetting Ghana Tour in Sunyani in the Bono Region on Thursday, March 19, he said the earlier exercise created significant inconvenience for citizens but ultimately failed to produce meaningful outcomes.

He attributed the failure to poor coordination among key institutions, particularly the Ministry of Communications and the National Identification Authority, noting that the lack of alignment undermined efforts to properly link SIM cards to verified national identity data.

According to the President, although citizens were required to re-register their SIM cards under difficult conditions, the process did not deliver tangible benefits and was largely ineffective.

Mahama explained that the upcoming exercise will be fully integrated with the Ghana Card to ensure accurate identification of SIM card users.

He added that the improved system will allow individuals to update their registration details digitally, eliminating the need for long queues at registration centres.

His comments come after the National Communications Authority disclosed that an audit of SIM registration data from 2021 to 2023 recorded no fingerprint matches when compared with the national identity database, raising concerns about the reliability of the current system.