Minister of Communications, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George has said that, not only will the forthcoming SIM Registration be totally free for all consumers, but the process is also intentionally designed to ensure absolute comfort and convenience for Ghanaians.
Speaking at a media engagement on SIM registration, the Minister said President John Dramani Mahama specifically instructed him to ensure that the process is comfortable and convenient for Ghanaians, to prevent the stress and frustration witnessed in 2022-2023 during a similar exercise, and that is exactly what he has done in collaboration with the various stakeholders.
For one, the minister explained that the architecture is intentionally designed to be mainly a self-service platform, where majority of Ghanaians would only have to go on the SIM Registration platform on their phone wherever they are in the world – start and complete the entire process all on their phone or handheld device, without having to go to any telco’s office and queue for SIM registration.
In the 2022-2023 process, self-service was only introduced as a premium service, for which users had to pay ghs5 for every single SIM registered. Even with that, there were numerous complaints of the system debiting people’s accounts several times even when the service failed. This time round, the process is mainly self-service, and it is available for all Ghanaians at all locations around the world for absolutely free.
NCA and NIA Collaboration
Sam George said his confidence in the architecture for the upcoming SIM registration lies in the fact that, unlike the 2023-2023 one, for the first time the two main state institutions managing the process – National Communications Authority (NCA) and the National Identification Authority (NIA) are working closely to make the process successful.
It would be recalled that in the previous process, the then sector minister, Ursula Owusu Ekuful, took a hard line stance and tried to whip NIA into following the lead of the NCA and its private sector contractor, Kelni GVG. The minister’s posture caused the the then Executive Secretary of the NIA, Prof. Ken Attafuah to write a two page letter stating categorically that the NIA could not vouch for the process being used to collect the biodata because they could not verify that biodata.
But this time round, NCA and NIA are working hand in hand to ensure that data collection meets the required standard, and that every data collected can be duly verified and authenticated against the NIA’s database. This will make life easier for consumers and also ensure that the Central SIM Register created in reliable.
Anywhere and Everywhere
The Minister said the other key source of comfort and convenience the process will provide is that any Ghanaian who owns a Ghana Card can register their SIM cards by themselves anywhere in the world.
“Ghanaians in the diaspora do not have to travel to Ghana to register their SIM cards – and they do not have to make anyone do it for them either – because it is a self-service system, which has a liveliness verification feature everyone can do it anywhere in the world. Once you do the liveliness test and the system clears you, the SIM will be registered,” he said.
Liveliness Test
A liveliness test is a feature on the SIM registration platform that captures a picture of the the face of the Ghana Card holder to verify it against the picture on the Ghana Card. Once it is confirmed that the live picture captured is the same as the one on the Ghana Card, the process will be allowed to continue.
The liveliness test prevents fraudsters from using the Ghana Card details of other people to register SIM cards. Without the liveliness test the registration process will be truncated.
In many cases, the previous exercise circumvented the liveliness test and allowed people to use other people’s Ghana Card details to register several SIM card. This was why Techfocus24, for instance, reported then that the Central SIM Register had been breached, because there were several fraudulent registrations which were passed at the time.
Indeed, the NCA recently sampled some 2.3 million registered SIMs in the Central SIM Register and found that 81% were valid and the remaining 19% were not. So it was true that the Central SIM Register was indeed breached, even though the NCA, at the time Techfocus24 exposed the breach, claimed that was not possible.
OTP for approval
The other source of comfort, the Minister explained, is that, unlike previous when fraudsters could easily use other people’s Ghana Card details to register several SIM card without the Ghana Card owner’s knowledge, this time round, for every attempt to register another SIM with any Ghana Card, the Ghana Card owner will receive a One Time Password (OTP) on his or her original phone number, and the system will require him or her to give approval before the process will continue.
So, if the Ghana Card holder receives the OTP and does not enter it into the system to allow the SIM registration process to continue, that process will be truncated and flagged as fraudulent.
The Minister however cautioned that if a Ghana Card holder allows his card to used to register a particular SIM card and that SIM card is used to commit fraud, the Ghana Card holder will be held squarely responsible, because the evidence would be there that he or she actually approved the use of his/her Ghana Card for the registration of that particular SIM card.
He is confident that the comfort and convenience the system promises will make every law-abiding Ghanaian to sit in their comfort of their homes anywhere in the world and register their SIM card.
Procurement not a priority
Sam George also noted that the main challenge that face the earlier exercise under the previous government was that procurement rather than consumer protection and building a reliable database was the main focus.
He therefore assured that public that “at the base of this new process is not procurement – at the base of this is consumer protection and comfort. This time round we will want to build a reliable SIM register controlled by the NCA and NIA.”
Not all will register
Sam George however stated that he does not expect everyone to register, particular those whose current active SIM cards were registered with the Ghana Card details of other persons.
He believes such persons are the ones opposed to the upcoming SIM Registration, because they know the system will find them out and they cannot also show up at any telco’s office for instance, since the Ghana Card details on the card is not theirs.
“Those fraudulently registered SIM card will eventually be deactivated if they are unable to show up and regularize their details,” he said.
The Minister however noted that the stakeholders are still discussing what window to give holders of such SIM cards before deactivation. Indeed, the new SIM Registration Bill is still in Parliament pending passage into law.
