Parliament has passed the Legislative Instrument on SIM registration, paving the way for the introduction of biometric verification before the end of the year.
Minister of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George, says the new system will strengthen subscriber identification and clean up the flaws that characterised the previous registration exercise.
According to him, the exercise forms part of broader efforts to secure Ghana’s digital identity and telecom space.
Speaking at the Government Accountability Series at the Jubilee House in Accra on Monday, September 7, 2026, Mr George said government would ensure regulation keeps pace with developments in the digital space.
“The work is far from finished, and I will not pretend otherwise. But the direction is unmistakable, the results are measurable, and the resolve of this Ministry is unshaken,” he said.
The SIM registration exercise began on October 1, 2021, as a two-stage process requiring linkage to Ghana Card and biometric capture. By October 2022, about 28.96 million SIMs, representing 67.28% of SIMs issued, had been linked to Ghana Cards, but only 18.93 million, representing 44.28%, had completed both stages.
The exercise ended on May 31, 2023, after several extensions, with over 10 million subscribers completing only the first stage.
MTN Ghana alone blocked about 5.4 million unregistered SIMs at the time. The NCA and the Ministry have since admitted the exercise did not fully achieve its objective of reducing fraud and building public confidence.
On March 13, 2026, the NCA held stakeholder consultations on the draft regulations, which covered registration for residents and foreigners, financial and operational considerations, SIM limits per ID, and registration of minors and diplomats.
Under the new regime, subscribers will be required to provide biometric data, such as fingerprints, to make it difficult to register SIMs with fraudulent identities.
With the LI now in force, the Ministry is expected to work with the NCA and telcos to roll out the verification before the end of the year, with timelines and sanctions for non-compliance to be announced.
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