The Director-General of the National Communications Authority, Rev Edmund Yiirenkyi Fianko, has justified the need for a fresh SIM re-registration exercise.

According to him, the previous exercise fell short of ensuring full verification of SIM cards.

Speaking on TV3’s Hot Issues, and monitored by GhanaWeb on Monday, March 23, 2026, he revealed inconsistencies involving the National Identification Authority system, where the same Ghana Card was linked to different individuals.

“We showed instances where the date of birth, PIN, and name were exactly the same, yet the photos were different. That situation should not occur because the PIN is designed to be a unique identifier tied to only one individual.

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“We could confirm that the card details matched the name and date of birth provided. However, we could not verify that the person presenting the card was the actual owner because the biometric validation was not fully carried out,” he remarked.

Rev Fianko further explained that although biometric data such as fingerprints and facial images were captured, they were not properly cross-checked with the NIA database.

“The biometric data was collected, but it was not compared against what the National Identification Authority already had. So the second phase of validation, which would confirm identity, effectively did not happen,” he noted.

Rev Fianko disclosed that a sample audit of about 2.3 million SIM registrations uncovered multiple anomalies.

“We took a small sample to determine whether there were issues, and clearly, we found defects. Based on that, we could not confidently say that every registration was done by the rightful owner.

“This is not about whether 80 percent is acceptable or not. When you are dealing with millions of records, even a small percentage of errors represents a very large number of problematic cases,” Rev Fianko stated.

He expressed hope that the new exercise will introduce stricter verification measures, including full biometric validation and real-time confirmation through a primary phone number.

“The objective is to build a database we can trust for national security and digital services. We want a system where every number can be confidently linked to a verified individual," he added.

JKB/MA

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