New SIM registration to curb momo fraud, says Samuel Nartey George

Ghana is set to undertake its first fully biometric SIM registration exercise, a move that the Minister of Communication and Digitalisation, Samuel Nartey George, says will make mobile money (MoMo) fraud significantly more costly for perpetrators.

Speaking at a press conference in Accra on Tuesday, March 17, the Ningo Prampram lawmaker explained that fraudsters will face serious consequences when caught, including losing access to government services.

“To a very large extent, it will make MoMo fraud very expensive,” he said. “When his Ghana Card is blocked, he loses access to every government service. So the cost to MoMo fraud is being raised to the level that it will be prohibitive.”

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The Minister clarified that the exercise is not merely a re-registration but a “final SIM registration” designed to correct flaws from the previous 2021–2023 registration, which lacked biometric verification.

“Migrating into a new system without proper cleansing doesn’t solve the problem; it simply transfers the flaws,” he noted.

Mr George emphasised that the new system will incorporate advanced verification measures, including One-Time Passwords (OTPs), eSIM adoption, and liveliness checks against the National Identification Authority (NIA) database.

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“The critical thing I complained about for which reason I said the registration in 2021 to 2023 should not have happened was the lack of biometric verification,” he said. “We are looking to fix all of those problems and I believe strongly that this is going to be the very final SIM registration exercise that we are doing.”

He added: “Mind you, I keep saying that this is not a SIM re-registration. A re-registration means you are re-registering something that already exists. That is not what we are doing; the systems are completely different.”

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The Minister’s announcement underscores the government’s commitment to strengthening mobile security, protecting public services, and ensuring the integrity of SIM registration in Ghana.