The debate surrounding Ghana’s SIM card registration exercise has resurfaced, with industry expert Dr Kenneth Ashigbey shedding light on what he believes was a critical flaw in the process.

While many have criticized the exercise as ineffective, Dr. Ashigbey, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, insists that the initiative was not entirely useless but rather incomplete.

“I wouldn’t say it is useless. I would say it was incomplete. The thing about it is that the collected biometric data was not reading properly,” he explained during an interview on Eyewitness News on Citi FM.

The SIM card registration, intended to curb fraud and enhance security in the telecommunications sector, required mobile users to re-register their numbers with biometric data.

READ ALSO: NDC Will Launch Yet Another SIM Card Registration – Sam George Claims

However, according to Dr. Ashigbey, the fingerprint data collected did not match the level of accuracy found in Ghana’s National Identification Authority (NIA) system.

“What we should have done was use the NIA database to complete the cycle,” he pointed out, arguing that the NIA database should serve as the “single point of truth” for biometric verification.

The exercise, which led to the deactivation of numerous unregistered SIM cards, has faced criticism from both consumers and industry players.

Many subscribers complained of registration challenges, while some were blocked despite completing the process. Dr. Ashigbey believes that these issues stem from the lack of proper cross-checking with the NIA database.

“We do the liveliness test, we do the likeliness test, we collect the biometric data, but we don’t compare it with the single point of truth, which is the NIA database,” he emphasized.

Don’t miss out! Get your daily dose of Entertainment news and more straight to your phone. Join Ghana Street Journal Whatsapp channel now!