NIA Can’t Guarantee Quality Of Data Being Collected In Senseless SIM Re-registration

The National Identification Authority (NIA) has hinted that the data being collected by the various telecommunication companies in the ongoing controversial SIM re-registration exercise may not be very useful for verification of biometric data already collected by the NIA.

A letter signed by the Executive Secretary of the authority, Professor Kenneth Attafuah, said his outfit cannot confirm that the data being collected by the telcos will meet the standard of quality that the NIA can work with, despite the fact that the requirement for the re-registration is the Ghana Card which is certified and issued by the NIA.

This view by the NIA completely defeats the purpose to which the Akufo Addo administration had forced citizens into crowded queues to re-register their SIMs amidst the threats of causing widespread infection of COVID-19 as citizens attempt to beat the deadline for registration.

“NIA is unable to confirm that the biometric data to be collected by the NCA for the purpose described above will meet the standard to enable successful verification against the National Identification System (NIS) database,” the letter said in total rubbishing of the SIM registration.

“The use of an App that is not developed or certified by NIA to rend the Ghana Card using a two-step data collection and verification process is outside NIA’s control. NIA is, therefore, unable to guarantee the results of such a process,” the letter said.

It had been in response to an enquiry by Selorm Branttie, Vice President at Imani Center for Policy & Education who doubles as Global Strategy Director at mPedigree Network, who had sought to find out if the NIA was working together with the telcos in the SIM re-registration exercise.

Mr. Brantie who is one of a number of activists lacing their boots to demonstrate against the exercise on 8th February, posted copies of the NIA letters on his Facebook timeline to claim vindication that the exercise is a waste of time.

The revelation explains why even though Ghanaians have their biometric data at the NIA, the government and telcos are re-registering people all over again. Critics, such as Selorm Branttie have pointed out that all the information needed to re-register SIM cards are already available at the NIA.