Minister of Communications and Digitalization, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has extended the deadline again for the SIM re-registration exercise which should have ended today Sunday, July 31.
She said 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.
Addressing a press conference in Accra Sunday July 31, she said “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.”
With Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) Registrations, she said ” 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.
Earlier, Madam Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, served notice that the deadline remains July 31. It was earlier pushed forward from March 31 to July 31.
“More time will be required to update the SIM Registration App for the registration of diplomats, while a Self-Service SIM Registration App is also being developed to facilitate registration of SIM cards for Ghanaians resident abroad.
“This will be operational by mid-April,” a statement issued by Madam Owusu-Ekuful said on Tuesday, March 22.
Addressing a forum in Kumasi on Friday July 22, she appealed to all persons who are yet to re-register their cards to do so before the deadline.
“I therefore appeal to them to do so before the 31st of July,” she said.
Source: 3News.com
