I’ll ensure telcos pay for SIM card registration – Sam George

Minister for Communications, Digital Technology, and Innovation, Samuel Nartey George, has reiterated that telecommunications companies will bear the full cost of the upcoming SIM card registration exercise in Ghana.

Speaking on The Point of View on Channel One TV on Monday, April 14, Sam George underscored his commitment to ensuring that telcos take financial responsibility for the process, which he described as a vital step toward streamlining the country’s telecommunications infrastructure.

He disclosed that plans are underway to lay a Legislative Instrument (LI) before Parliament to formalise the directive.

“They [telcos] will pay for it. I will make them pay for it. There is an LI that we will be laying before Parliament,” George stated.

He contrasted his approach with previous efforts under former Minister Ursula Owusu, criticising the re-registration process conducted during her tenure.

“That was one of my criticisms of Ursula Owusu—that the re-registration she did… and that is why I have been clear that I am not doing a re-registration. I am doing a SIM registration,” he clarified.

According to George, his initiative is not a continuation of past re-registration efforts but a comprehensive registration exercise designed to create a credible and centralized database, using the Ghana Card as the “single source of truth.”

He pointed out that the current legislation governing SIM registration dates back to 2010, during the tenure of then-Minister Haruna Iddrisu—a period when the Ghana Card was not yet in use.

“The last LI on the record for registration was 2010 by Haruna Iddrisu and don’t forget that registration Haruna did—there was no Ghana Card at the time and so there was no single source of truth,” George added.