Ursula Owusu Fires Back at Mahama over SIM Registration Remarks, Defends 2022/23 Exercise
- Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has defended the 2022-2023 SIM registration against President Mahama's accusations of incompletion
- She asserted the new process was superior, linking every SIM to a national ID for accountability
- Owusu-Ekuful emphasised the importance of honesty and consistency in Ghana's communication policies
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Former Communications and Digitalisation Minister Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has launched a stinging defence of the 2022-2023 SIM card registration exercise, accusing President John Mahama of peddling falsehoods about the programme.
Source: Instagram
During his recent Bono Region tour, President Mahama indicated the SIM registration exercise under the previous government was incomplete.
According to Mahama, a spat between Ursula, the then Communications Minister, and the National Identification Authority (NIA) boss Professor Ken Attafuah led to the non-completion of the exercise.
The president was speaking in support of an upcoming nationwide SIM registration exercise announced by the Communications Minister, Sam George.
Watch the YouTube video below:
However, Owusu-Ekuful has denied the president's claim, insisting that every SIM has been linked to a national ID.
Ursula Owusu defends 2022-2023 SIM registration
In a statement on Friday, March 20, 2026, she noted that instead of the Mahama administration building on the existing foundations, it was rather trying to erase them for political gain.
At the heart of her rebuttal is the assertion that the previous exercise was legally sound, technically rigorous, and far superior to the earlier 2010–2011 registration, which she described as unverifiable due to the absence of any reliable national identification system at the time.
"Who could confidently say whether those manual verifications [in 2011] were right or wrong?" she asked.
Ursula Owusu-Ekuful outlined the architecture of the 2022–2023 process, which she said was based on the Ghana Card's dual-layer verification system, cross-checking user details with the National Identification Authority (NIA) and capturing biometric data, including facial recognition and fingerprints.
She cited a 2025 audit showing that over 80 per cent of facial biometrics matched NIA records as evidence of the exercise's robustness, and described the fact that every active SIM in Ghana is now linked to a Ghana Card as beyond dispute.
Dismissing suggestions of institutional dysfunction during the process as technical rather than personal in nature, she further noted that the current government's own approach to SIM management mirrors the framework her administration had already put in place, a point she said undermined the basis for criticism.
The exercise, she added, had the additional benefit of incentivising many Ghanaians to acquire their Ghana Cards, while a secure SIM registry now sits with the National Electronic Transactions Authority (NITA).
"The previous exercise was not perfect, but it created a foundation. The Ghanaian people deserve honesty. They deserve consistency," she said.
See Ursula Owusu's statement on Facebook below:
Ghanaian man discovers 10 SIM cards linked
YEN.com.gh had earlier reported that a Ghanaian man, identified as Nana Kwadwo Yeboah Asiamah, alleged that 10 numbers were linked to his Ghana Card without his consent.
According to him, he visited the MTN office because one of his mobile money numbers was experiencing an issue, and he decided to seek a resolution.
While there, he attempted to purchase another SIM card and register, only to be informed that he had exceeded the maximum number of slots
Source: YEN.com.gh
