SIM re-registration a political decision disguised as policy – NPP MP

Member of Parliament for Walewale, Mahama Tiah Abdul-Kabiru, has criticised plans for a new SIM card registration exercise, describing the move as unnecessary and politically driven.

In a Facebook post on March 26, 2026, the lawmaker questioned the rationale behind the proposed exercise despite significant compliance levels recorded in previous registrations.

“The decision to do a fresh registration is purely a political decision disguised as a policy. Whilst we concede the necessity of having a credible SIM identity register in accordance with law, we (minority) do not think a new registration is the solution.

“We indicated (I personally submitted) that the challenges with the previous registration are not recent knowledge. We referred to June 2023 parliamentary briefing which highlighted challenges such as unauthorized Use of Ghana Cards for SIM Registration, SIM Database Breach and cases of registration exceeding cap of 10. For these challenges, the remedial measures including the 402-code solution which did not include fresh registration.

“It is therefore problematic that instead of correcting the data with these measures, the ministry is rather pushing for a fresh registration,” part of his social media post said.

His comments come after the Majority Caucus in Parliament’s Communications and Information Committee announced their support for a fresh SIM registration during a press conference.

SIM re-registration exercise 'unproductive' - UP Policy Director

However, Abdul-Kabiru, aligning with the Minority’s position, argued that while a credible SIM database is necessary, a complete restart is not the solution.

“Whilst we concede the necessity of having a credible SIM identity register in accordance with law, we do not think a new registration is the solution,” he said.

According to him, details presented by the NCA, an audit of 2.2 million SIM registrations showed that about 1.8 million, over 80 percent were compliant, with data verified against the National Identification Authority (NIA) database.

Abdul-Kabiru argued that this raises a critical concern.

The MP warned against abandoning existing systems instead of improving them.

“No system is without challenges. If our approach as a country is to abandon altogether systems put in place for a new one, when the imperfect system could have been improved, then we have no better approach,” he said.

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