The former IT expert at the National Identification Authority (NIA) Mr. Koku Yayra has made some shocking “beef” between the NIA Executive Secretary Professor Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah and the Minister for Communications and Digitalization Ursula Owusu-Ekuful.
According to the IT expert, there is an endless conflict between Ursula Owusu-Ekuful and Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah over SIM card re-registration exercise.
In a statement, Yayra Koku said, “when this SIM card registration started, he posted that there was a serious rift between the Minister of Communication and the NIA Boss, but some people were insulting him.”
In supporting his allegation, he said, there was a meeting between NIA, Ministry of Communication, Telcos, NCA and others to kick start the SIM card registration. NIA presented their proposal to the Telcos that they have already collected some phone numbers and can share with them so that the registration can start there. The Telcos were so happy with that idea.
In the midst of the positive roadmap to rollout the Sim Card re-registration exercise, then Madam Minister [Ursula Owusu-Ekuful] jumped in and said the Telcos are under her Ministry, so they will do the registration themselves through an App a private person has developed. And that NIA should share their data with NCA for authentication.
“NIA then decided that they won’t be part of the registration process. It took the intervention of Bawumia to allow them to share some part of their data with NCA to verify PIN and not biometric authentication. So the biometrics the Telcos are capturing are USELESS to NIA.” Be added.
According to Yayra Koku, even though, he has revealed the hard truth, he knows they will DENY this, but you can’t hide the truth.
On Sunday, 31st July, 2022, the Communications and Digitalization Minister Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, while addressing the press has extended the deadline for SIM card re-registration exercise again to 30th September, 2022 for Ghanaian citizens and 31st December, 2022 for non-Ghanaian citizens.
According to Ursula Owusu, the failure by many people to get their SIM cards re-registered nesesitate the extension of the July 31 deadline by two more months, Meanwhile, It was the second extension after the first on Thursday, March 31.
One major setback for the failure of the Ghanaians to re-register their SIM cards has to do with NIA inability to register and dispatch all printed cards to registrants/applicants.
But, in contrary to Ursula Owusu-Ekuful’s call for NIA to fast track processes to issue Ghana cards to applicants in order to meet the September 30 deadline, the Executive Secretary of NIA Prof. Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah has given indication that not all who are applying for a new card or correcting errors on old ones or even seeking a replacement due to loss or damage will be able to get them sorted out by Friday, September 30
In an interview with Alfred Ocansey on TV3‘s Ghana Tonight on Monday, August 1, 2022, Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah said, his outfit was not established to operate by deadlines but rather in perpetuity.
The national identity cards, popularly known as the Ghana Card, has become the primary document for the recent re-registration of subscriber identity module (SIM) cards.
But Prof Attafuah said the Authority was set up to allow Ghanaians the luxury of time to get their cards.
“NIA was not set up with a specific deadline,” he stressed.
“NIA is an organisation set up in perpetuity. What that means is that we are to deliver our mandate pretty much the same like the hospital or a maternity ward that people go there as and when they need to.”
He explained that the law that set up the NIA required it to conduct a mass registration within a one-year period and get Ghanaians who turn 15 years and non-citizens the luxury to register.
“That is the scheme prescribed by law and that is the scheme we are implementing and we are doing so in perpetuity. There is no timeline and the intendment of the law is that people will go to the NIA at their leisure and pleasure to go and get registered and those people will be those who were not captured during registration.”
Prof Attafuah, however, expressed hope that a large chunk of Ghanaians out of the over 800,000 left will get their cards for the SIM re-registration before the latest deadline.
SOURCE: Coverghana.com.gh
 Mr. Koku Yayra has made some shocking "beef" between the NIA Executive Secretary Professor Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah and the Minister for Communications and Digitalization Ursula Owusu-Ekuful.){kind=link}