The Minority in Parliament says the next National Democratic Congress government will embark on another SIM re-registration exercise.
Addressing journalists in Parliament, Samuel Nartey George, the Deputy Ranking Member on the Communications Committee of Parliament, said the ongoing re-registration exercise has not been properly managed.
He said the new NDC government would embark on a comprehensive SIM re-registration exercise should it win the 2024 polls.
“It is not true that they are using this to fight crime, because the Ghana Card fundamentally is flawed. That is why we have served notice that the next NDC government will do a proper re-registration of SIM Cards which will not involve you having to go and queue in telecom offices, but we will do a proper re-registration of SIM Cards.”
The press conference was held after the Minister for Communication Ursula Owusu-Ekuful updated Parliament on the exercise so far.
According to the Minister, merchants have up until June 30, 2023, to register their sims or have them permanently blocked.
She disclosed that almost 280,000 merchant SIMs have not been registered, offering fraudsters an opportunity to use them in perpetuating their activities.
“I have also been informed that almost 280,000 merchant SIMs have not been registered. A viral video doing the rounds on social media a few weeks ago indicated that some criminal networks have actually acquired merchant SIMs to facilitate fraudulent activities. Let me reiterate once again, that all unregistered merchant SIMs will be blocked permanently at the end of June 2023,” she said.
Meanwhile, the minister has announced that
subscribers who were unable to complete the second stage of the registration process should contact the NCA to have their SIMs registered.
“I will urge victims of illegal acts to notify the National Communications Authority (NCA) and action will be taken to deter this process. I have also heard complaints that though they had registered their SIMs, those SIMs were blocked. My information is that several of these complaints are people who didn’t complete the second stage of the process as required. Such people should contact the NCA to have their SIMs registered and owners of the SIMs will get their numbers back after duly registration.
“They must act timeously as the NCA will announce when this moratorium will end after which all unregistered SIMs will permanently be blocked from the networks. If your line has been blocked, and you still need it, please go and register. There may be however some whose SIMs are blocked inadvertently in full registration. Kindly notify the NCA and a full investigation will be conducted to be determined if this was really the case and why it happened”.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
