The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Dr. Ken Ashigbey, has expressed concerns about the previous SIM card registration exercise, pointing to a lack of coordination between the National Identification Authority (NIA) and the National Communications Authority (NCA).
Speaking during a media engagement, Dr. Ashigbey noted that the biometric data collected during the registration did not meet the standards set by the NIA, leading to inconsistencies in the process.
He stressed the importance of continued dialogue with the NCA to resolve these technical challenges.
“I think the point has to be made that in the last SIM registration, one of our major challenges that we faced was that we were not able to start the SIM registration and end it with tech-based verification, and so you interrogate the NIA database and you return some details to confirm what I’ve seen.”
“But the second phase, where you are supposed to do the biometric verification, I do the liveliness test, and all of those things were not done with the NIA. So based on the differences that exist between the two regulatory bodies that were not resolved by the two ministries, as in communication and interior.”
“We had a situation where now the ministry of communication had to get the NCE to now do a SIM registration the believe that what and I say I believe it because the minister has met us, spoken to us high level about it, but we will definitely be meeting with the NTA to understand the technicalities, and then we would also be able to contribute based on our experience on how to do this.”
