THE Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Mr. Samuel Nartey George, has been caught in a web of his own making as a resurfaced video reveals a dramatic U-turn on his stance regarding SIM card re-registration.
The footage, which has gone viral on social media, shows a younger, more defiant Sam George arguing passionately against the very “clean-slate” approach he is currently forcing upon 32 million Ghanaians in 2026.
In the video, the now-Minister is heard dismissing the Ministry’s current logic—that fraudulent ID usage justifies a total re-registration—as unnecessary and technically lazy.
‘Identify the Fraudsters, Not the People’
In the transcribed footage, Mr. George is seen questioning the rationale behind making every single Ghanaian go through the stress of registration simply because a few people may have used fraudulent cards.
“That should not mean that all 32 million active SIM card holders in Ghana today… must go through a re-registration,” he stated emphatically in the video.
Ironically, this is the exact opposite of the policy he is currently spearheading, which demands a brand-new registration for the entire population in the first quarter of 2026.
The Database Solution
Perhaps the most damaging part of the video is Mr. George’s own suggestion for how to handle “infected” data without disturbing the public.
He listed several biometric databases—including the NIA, EC Voter, SSNIT, DVLA, and National Health Insurance—arguing that these systems are already synchronized and can be used to weed out fraud.
“Identify those whose cards are fraudulent. Because you can do that using the Ghana card registration database… These are all biometric databases that we are synchronizing in the country. So you can do that,” he said.
This revelation gives weight to the recent claims by the former Minister, Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, who argued that the government is merely “reinventing the wheel” and wasting resources.
Goal-Shifting or Governance?
The emergence of this video has sparked outrage among taxpayers who feel the GH₵1.3 billion budget allocated to the Ministry is being spent on a project the Minister himself once called unnecessary.
Critics are now asking: what has changed? If Mr. George believed in “synchronizing databases” to find fraud a few years ago, why is he now insisting on physical queues and a GH₵5 registration fee today?
The ‘Ursula’ Vindicated?
The video appears to validate Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful’s recent rebuttal, where she insisted that 80 percent of the work is already done and verified by a 2025 audit.
In her statement, she asked why the government is repeating the same methodology she introduced while pretending it is brand new. With Sam George’s own past words now coming back to haunt him, the “needless drain” on national resources she spoke of seems more evident than ever.
As the 2026 registration deadline approaches, the “double tongue” of the sector minister has left many wondering if this exercise is truly about national security or merely a high-priced digital vanity project.
