Supervise SIM card registration – CPP chairperson to government

Nana Akosua Frimpomaa, chairperson and leader of the Convention Peoples Party, has raised concerns over the safety of biodata of citizens being processed and stored by telecommunication companies in the SIM card registration exercises.

She said it would be in the nation’s interest for the government to be the sole organ to supervise and ascertain where the information collected would be kept and used as well.

Speaking in a press conference to express her displeasure, Nana Frimponmaa said “the biometric data taken by the telcos may expose the citizens to all types of information related dangers, including fraud and such looming danger must be stopped.”

She said in her attempt to unblock her Mobile Money SIM, her biodata had to be taken on four different occasions by different desk attendants though they had scanned her Ghana Card using an app.

“My fingerprints and facial recognition are captured by these four attendants, and I kept asking myself, where are these people storing my biodata and who can access it?” the Chairperson said.

Madam Frimpomaa said she again experienced the same process in registering her sim cards.

She said the telcos after scanning the Ghana Card should get every information needed to register and re-register the SIM cards.

In October 2021, the National Communications Authority (NCA), announced that registration of new sim cards and re-registration of existing sim cards could be done using the Ghana Card only to verify and authenticate.

Nana Akosua Frimponmaa noted that the taking of biodata, fingerprints and facial recognition was a duplication of functions.

This, she said contributed to the long queues seen at most registration centers, adding that the registration should be done with the Ghana Card only.

The SIM card registration exercise was earmarked to have ended by March 31, however, the NCA has extended it to July 31.