The Minister for Communications and Digitalization, Mrs Ursula Owusu Ekuful has stated on the floor of parliament that, the National Identification Authority (NIA) has no mandate in law to register sim cards.
The minister’s submission was a response to a question made by MP for Tamale North, Alhassan Sayibu Suhiyini, claiming that per the letter from NIA office, the ongoing SIM card registration is meaningless since the rightfully institution that has to carry the exercise has been denied of.
Setting the record straight, the minister said, NIA’s mandate is to collect biometric data for the purpose of National Identification Cards to serve as a database for the country, so therefore, the NIA does not have a hand in the SIM card registration, but rather the work of TELCOS.
“The member who just said that, is the one by law with sole responsibility to conduct sim registration, to indicate work in the NIA own letter, it said so. The NIA is mandated by law to collect biometrics for the purposes of issuing a national identification card.
The law also requires certain activities to be done if you require the verification of the identity of the person to use the National I’D card for the purposes and so there’s no law in the country which has given the NIA authority to conduct sim registration this land. It is solely to job of the network operator” she added
The Minister concluded that, her ministry is working assiduously take out illegal SIM cards from the country.
