Minister of Communication and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has absolved herself of the challenges stemming from the Ghana card registration.
The Minister says the designated authority responsible for the exercise is not under her ministry but that of the Interior, where Ambrose Dery is in charge.
She has therefore tasked those with issues relating to the ECOWAS Identity card, nicknamed Ghana Card to channel their concerns to the sector minister and head of the National Identification Authority.
She made the statement at her concluding remarks with the media during her announcement of the extension of the SIM card re-registration.
The Ablekuma West lawmaker held the vilification have resulted from the SIM re-registration exercise which requires the Ghana card as its primary document of authentication.
She said she is concentrating on her ministry without trespassing areas beyond her designation.
“I must end by reminding us all that the MoCD 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,” she said.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful has reluctantly extended the deadline for the SIM re-registration to September 30 after threatening not to go beyond the July 31 extension some days ago.
She, however, spelt some sanctions that unregistered subscribers will suffer after the end of August 2022.
“The program 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,” she admonished.
By Felix Anim-Appau|Onuaonline.com|Ghana
