A digital strategist, Maximus Ametorgoh, has criticised the government’s planned SIM registration exercise, describing it as unnecessary, costly, and poorly designed, despite previous nationwide registration efforts.
Speaking on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Monday (23 March), Ametorgoh questioned why Ghanaians should be subjected to another round of registration when a similar exercise was conducted in 2021.
“It doesn’t make sense for us to go through registration, re-registration, and then a third one that nullifies all previous ones,” he said.
The government has maintained that the new exercise is not a re-registration but a fresh validation process aimed at improving data integrity and tackling fraud. However, Ametorgoh argued that the approach reflects inefficiency within public systems.
He noted that citizens had already provided biometric and phone number data during the Ghana Card registration process, making a full reset redundant.
“I gave my phone number during Ghana Card registration. Now I’m being asked to use the same Ghana Card to register the same number again,” he said.
Instead of restarting the process, he proposed a data integration model, where authorities extract existing records and verify users through SMS or digital authentication, rather than requiring physical or repeated registration.
Ametorgoh also raised concerns about the financial implications, warning that although telecom operators are expected to bear the cost, it will ultimately be passed on to consumers.
“This becomes a cost line item for telcos, and they will transfer it back to customers,” he said.
He further criticised the lack of transparency around the technical design of the system, urging government to clearly define:
- The problem it seeks to solve
- The cost of the exercise
- The long-term reliability of the system
According to him, without a clear framework, the country risks repeating the same cycle under future administrations.
“Government is supposed to be efficient… if this were a private company, it would have been done once and done properly,” he added.
The debate over SIM registration has resurfaced amid government efforts to strengthen digital identity systems and curb cybercrime, but critics argue that policy inconsistency and duplication continue to undermine progress.
