By Benjamin A. Commey
Accra, Sept 5, GNA — With deadline for the SIM cards registration approaching, the number of people going to register their cards remains low at the centres.
Barely a month to the end of the registration exercise, and the introduction of a raft of punitive measures by the National Communications Authority (NCA) against persons who have failed to register their SIM cards, many Ghanaians seemed unconcerned and unperturbed by the ‘threats.’
A visit to some registration centres by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) showed a continued decline in the number of people who turn out to patronise the service.
That, an AirtelTigo agent who spoke to the Agency on condition of anonymity said was frustrating.
“Turnout has reduced drastically following the extension of the deadline and it is a bit frustrating.
“We are, therefore, using our various social media channels and apps to encourage customers to come and register. We are also encouraging them to use the self served app to do the registration,” the agent said.
Data from the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications shows that, as of August 20, 2022, only 5,861 persons had completed the biometric capturing for the re-registration exercise, compared to over 235,000 who had registered as of July 28, two days before the extension was announced.
Centres visited included AirtelTigo office in Adabraka, MTN at Ridge and Vodafone at Circle, all in Accra.
Some customers who came to have their SIM cards registered told the GNA that the reason was to avoid the “troubles” of the deadline date.
“I have tried to register it before the last deadline but couldn’t due to the number of people who massed up here to do same. This time, because of the extension, you can see the place is relaxed a bit and so I want to do it now to avoid the hustle come September,” Ms Mary Adzika, a Vodafone customer said.
Others such as Mr Stephen Sarfo, Mr Abdul Ibrahim, Mrs Sarah Nsia and Mr Jonathan Quaye, had similar reasons for turning up at the registration centres on Monday.
The NCA, as part of efforts to ensure compliance, introduced a raft of punitive measures against users who have failed to register their SIM cards by Monday, September 5, 2022.
Outgoing calls and data services for a sequential batch of numbers will be blocked for two days weekly on a rotational basis, a statement from the NCA said.
“MNOs [Mobile Network Operators] shall divide the unregistered SIMs into five batches for the purpose of implementing this punitive measure.
“These measures shall exclude blocking of SMS to give defaulting subscribers the opportunity to initiate registration if they so wish. Subscribers who fully register their SIM Cards within the period they have been blocked will only be unblocked by the MNOs after the 48 hours to avoid the MNOs tampering with their systems intermittently,” the statement added.
The full blocking of SIM cards according to the statement will only begin after September 30.
The Ghana card-SIM registration exercise is intended to build a SIM database with integrity to curb fraudulent activities and secure sim card-based transactions while aiding the determination of accurate valid sim cards across telecommunications networks at any point in time.
The exercise first commenced on October 1, 2021.
The 6-month exercise was expected to end on March 31, 2022, but extended by another four months to July 31, 2022.
GNA