Director of Policy for the United Party (UP), Dr. Nana Yaw Adutwum has criticized the government’s decision to carry out a new SIM re-registration exercise, describing it as unnecessary and ineffective.
In an interview on March 19, he said the problems encountered during the 2022–2023 exercise such as data inaccuracies and poor coordination between institutions should be fixed without restarting the entire process.
He argued that improving the existing system would be more practical than launching a new nationwide registration.
He also raised concerns about the cost, noting that the government has not disclosed how much public money will be spent.
Dr. Adutwum further suggested that mobile network operators should have been involved to help strengthen the current system instead of starting over.
According to him, the main issue appears to be data mismatches between SIM registrations and Ghana Card records, which he believes can be resolved without a complete reset.
“I particularly say, where I sit, I don’t think the approach that the government is adopting is a productive one. I think that we can rather build on than restart the whole process.
“Because Honorable Sam George has not told us the budget or the public funds that we’re going to spend on doing that. I believe there is public fatigue in going through that process, long queue, sitting under scorching sun, just to get my SIM registered.
“So I think that the telcos should have been brought to the table to rethink the process that we went through in 2022-2023 and fashion out new measures that can help improve that,” he said.
