Minority Slams Bawumia’s “Inept” and “Highly Naïve SIMS Card Re-Registration

The Minority leader, Haruna Iddris, has slammed Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, describing him as inept, ill-informed and highly naïve over his campaign to force Ghanaians to re-register their mobile telephone SIM cards by next month.

Dr. Bawumia, while speaking at the 5th Ghana CEO Summit in Accra, said in June 2021, all mobile phone users in the country would be expected to re-register their SIM cards or risk having their phone numbers deactivated because the government was seeking to stem mobile money fraud.

However, Haruna Iddrisu in a strongly-worded statement on behalf of the Minority in Parliament described the move as misplaced and incompetent.

According to the Minority, re-registering SIM cards is not a fool-proof measure to stop mobile money fraud.

“The comments of the Vice President are unfortunate, ill-informed, inept and highly naive. The solution to the challenges of fraud within the electronic money ecosystem goes beyond sim registration. Ordinary and in the past, the fiery display of ignorance by the vice president about digital evolution and emanating operational controls have received no attention. However, we are forced to react to this display of ineptitude by the Vice President because of the likely adverse consequences from oversimplifying a growing challenge with transformational technology,” Haruna Iddrisu fired.

 “Suppose the Vice President’s false beliefs about the root cause of electronic money fraud are allowed to garner momentum in serving his narrow political aims. In that case, it distracts from well thought out and proven solutions that can help mitigate this challenge and propel improved livelihoods.”

According to the Minority, they hold the view that mandatory re-registration of SIM provides no substantial benefit in the fight against electronic money fraud and will face practical challenges such as with inbound travellers who require a sim card without a national ID.

Vice President Bawumia has been at the centre of digital innovations, many of which have become pipe dreams, such as the digital house numbering and postal system. He has also championed cashless innovations for the informal sector, a move that has been slammed as ill-informed by critics.

Even more so, critics are pointing out a pattern in Dr. Bawumia’s crusade, which eerily syncs with a global trend of governments steadily tip-toeing towards a surveillance state using similar digital innovations and COVID-19 as an excuse.