The Communications Minister has reaffirmed that telecommunications companies in Ghana will shoulder the full cost of the forthcoming SIM card registration exercise.

Samuel Nartey George, speaking during an interview on Channel One TV on Monday, emphasised that the measure aims to enhance the country’s telecommunications infrastructure and ensure accountability among industry stakeholders.

He revealed that preparations are underway to present a Legislative Instrument (LI) before Parliament to give legal backing to the directive.

Sam George stressed that the cost of the registration should not be borne by the ordinary Ghanaian, reiterating his resolve to enforce the policy.

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

In distinguishing from his predecessor, Ursula Owusu, Mr George criticised the re-registration exercise undertaken during her tenure.

He maintained that his initiative is not a re-registration but a fresh and comprehensive registration process intended to clean up and centralise the national SIM card database.

“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.

Mr George further explained that the new exercise will be anchored on the Ghana Card, which he described as the “single source of truth” for identity verification.

He stated that this approach would ensure that the data collected is accurate, verifiable, and uniformly centralised, thereby addressing the gaps and inconsistencies in past registration attempts.

Providing historical context, the Minister referenced the last legislation governing SIM registration, which was enacted in 2010 under then-Minister Haruna Iddrisu.

At that time, the Ghana Card had not yet been introduced, limiting the effectiveness of identity verification systems.

“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,” Mr George concluded.