Executive Director of Media Foundation for West Africa Sulemana Braimah has described as arrogant comments by Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful that she has reluctantly extended the sim card registration exercise.
He is also asking if the Minister thinks her position was a monarchical one that she could keep forever.
The Minister of Digitalization, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful on Sunday, July 31, 2022, extended the deadline for the SIM re-registration exercise which should have ended today Sunday, July 31.
According to the Minister, she reluctantly granted the request to prolong the deadline following a number of genuine reasons that have been given by stakeholders including the telecom companies.
“The NIA has not been able to issue all eligible persons with the Ghana Card. As at Thursday July 21, 2022, 16,969,034 individuals have registered for the Ghana Card, with about 16,535,623 cards printed. 15,702,719 cards have been issued whereas some 832,904 cards have not been distributed or collected.”
” The BWAs commenced registration barely a week ago and have only been able to register just about 2% of their subscribers as at Friday 29th July. Many data only SIMS have also not been registered and my information is that their owners were not aware they also needed to be registered.
“The security situation in Bawku and its environs made it difficult for the registration of residents and has slowed down the process in that area considerably. I have also been informed that some people who have obtained quick loans from their service providers have decided not to register those SIMs to avoid repaying the loans. That is evil corruption and you will be found out.
“The Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and the National Communications Authority (NCA) (and I dare say the NIA too) have all engaged additional staff, procured the necessary logistics and are incurring significant expenses to conduct this exercise successfully. Any extension of the process increases their cost. Upon consultation with the industry and in view of the challenges enumerated above, I have very reluctantly decided to grant a final conditional extension.
“The programme will be extended to 30th September to end on the anniversary of its commencement. That will give us one full year of SIM registration. It will be reviewed at the end of this month and any SIM that has not been fully registered by the end of August will be barred from receiving certain services including voice and data services.
“It will also be more expensive to use unregistered SIMs. The full range of punitive measures will be announced at another press briefing in September. Kindly do not blame your service provider when you suffer that fate due to your own inaction. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.
“I must end by reminding us all that the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation is not the supervisory ministry for the National Identification Authority, even though we collaborate with them. My hapless self has been roundly vilified in certain quarters particularly this past week for Ghana card challenges which I am not responsible for. Prof. Ken Attafuah and his sector Minister, Hon. Ambrose Dery, Minister for the Interior, are available to answer any Ghana card related issue please. I am staying firmly in my lane.“
Reacting a series of tweets, Mr. Barimah said the government has created a situation where Ghanaians are going through inhumane treatment because they want to re-register their sim.
He said the Minister should have shown Ghanaians some respect and sympathy instead of making the arrogant comments.
“You let people go through inhumane experiences for a needless deadline. Then you arrogantly tell the people who gave you the power you are enjoying, that you are “reluctantly” extending the timeline. Do you think that power is a monarchical one that you will be keeping forever?
Madam Minister, just a little respect & sympathy for that old man who travelled from Bolga to Accra, the one who came in wheel chair from Akim Oda, & the 1000s who endured the needless queues to get their Ghana Card, won’t make you powerless, it will rather make you powerful!”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
