Former Communications Minister Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has strongly rejected claims that personal differences undermined Ghana’s biometric SIM card registration exercise, insisting that the challenges encountered were purely technical rather than personal.
Her response follows comments by John Dramani Mahama, who suggested during his “Resetting Ghana” tour that a feud between the former minister and Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah affected the integrity of the national data exercise.
In a detailed statement, Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful dismissed the assertion, stating that her professional relationship with Prof. Attafuah remained intact throughout the process.
‘No Personal Feud,’ Former Minister Insists
Addressing the allegations directly, the former minister said attempts to link operational challenges to personal conflict were misleading.
“A lot has been said to create the impression that the problems with the exercise were because of personal issues or bad blood between institutions. That is simply not true.” - Ursula Owusu-Ekuful
She added that despite disagreements between their respective institutions, communication was never broken.
“I have known Professor Attafuah for many years and at no point did we stop speaking either personally or professionally,” she noted, emphasizing her commitment to professionalism.
Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful attributed the main difficulties during the exercise to policy and technical decisions, particularly the lack of real-time integration between systems.
According to her, the National Identification Authority declined to grant direct access to its biometric database during the second phase of verification, limiting the efficiency of the process.
“We may have had disagreements, but I am too professional to allow differences of opinion to affect my work,” she stressed, rejecting claims that personal sentiment influenced policy decisions.
Defending the Project’s Success
The former minister also defended the overall outcomes of the SIM registration exercise, highlighting its scale and achievements.
She revealed that nearly 30 million SIM cards were successfully registered and linked to the Ghana Card, creating what she described as a comprehensive telecommunications database.
She further pointed to a 2025 audit which confirmed that over 80 percent of facial biometric data collected matched records held by the NIA, underscoring the system’s reliability.
Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful cautioned against dismantling existing digital infrastructure for political reasons, urging the current administration to build on previous progress.
Her remarks come as the government considers a new phase of SIM registration aimed at achieving full integration with national identity systems, reigniting debate over Ghana’s digital identity framework.
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