Ningo Prampram Member of Parliament `(MP), Sam Nartey George has expressed concerns over what he describes as multiple breaches associated with the SIM card re-registration exercise which commenced in October 2021.

According to the MP, “there is widespread evidence that there are multiple breaches of citizen's personal data during the SIM card registration exercise,” a situation he said would have been treated with utmost seriousness "in any serious jurisdiction.”

Sam George’s concern follows reports of a rise in the number of phone numbers (illegally) linked to peoples’ Ghana Cards.

Broadcast journalist with Angel FM, for instance, recently shared on social media how he mysteriously found out there were more numbers than did not belong to him linked to his Ghana Card, after visiting one of the Telcos to inquire about the number of SIM cards linked to his card. Other people have shared similar sentiments.

It is against this background that many people have called for a common and simple system that will allow them to verify the numbers linked to their Cards.

On April 11, 2023, the National Communications Authority (NCA) announced plans to create a system that will enable the public to verify the number of SIM cards linked to their Ghana Cards.

NCA in a social media post said that it has actively engaged the various telecommunication networks on launching a shortcode that will allow subscribers to verify the number of SIMs linked to their Ghana Cards.

Despite this assurance, Sam George noted that there is cause for alarm given the amount of data which have so far been tampered with.

“We are in a crisis! Do not forget that I had raised this issue on October 17, 2022 and the response from the National Communications Authority Ghana was that they were doing mystery shopping. Today, the Director of Legal at the Regulator is not telling us steps taken to check the extent of the breach but is shifting responsibility to citizens to wait for an app to check if they have suffered a breach? Good graces! How low have we sunk as a Nation,” he said.

He, however, proposed some steps to take in order to mitigate the impact of the alleged breaches which has been outlined below:

1. The NCA should immediately halt any further registration and conduct a thorough investigation of registration records to determine how many SIMs have been registered with each unique Ghana Card number.

2. They should then send messages to the primary number associated with each Ghana Card notifying the holder of the number of SIMs registered.

3. Where there is an issue of unauthorised registration using the Ghana Card, the customer is then given a chance to raise a complaint and the Data Protection Commission Ghana is immediately activated to determine the challenges with whichever Data Processor was involved and remedial steps taken including compensation and punitive action on the Data Processor.

4. Based on the findings of the DPC and NCA, criminal charges for identity theft and Data breaches would be brought against the persons or entities involved in the identity theft.

This is what a functional system should commence immediately as a triage of this process which is necessary and commendable but which has been messed up from the get go by poor public policy planning.

“Let him or her who has ears listen!” he added.