Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the Communications Minister, has blamed the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the long lines at SIM Card registration centers around the nation.
The Ablekuma West legislator claims that previous acts by the opposition party, such as deterring its supporters from taking part in the exercise, contributed to the current situation, which has seen the Ministry prolong the March 31 deadline.
The Communications Ministry said on Tuesday that the deadline for re-registering SIM cards across the country has been postponed until July 31, 2022.
Mrs Owusu-Ekuful, the sector Minister, said in a statement on Tuesday that her ministry had weighed the issues that had plagued the process since it began in October of last year.
As of March 17, 14,091,542 SIM cards had been linked to the Ghana Card, 10,348,532 Bio-Captures had been carried out, and 99,445 new SIM cards had been registered.
"It is clear that the deadline for completion of the registration of the remaining active SIM cards cannot be met due to a number of factors, including the fact that over 7.5 million citizens and residents have yet to obtain Ghana Cards to enable them to register their SIM cards," the press release stated.
Regardless, the Minister stated that the NDC cannot be exonerated of culpability.
"Even before the elections were done and this SIM card registration procedure took out, I suppose in 2018 or thereabouts, the NDC advised its members not to register and boycott," she told Asaase Radio in Accra.
As a result, the Minister feels that "the current lineups we are experiencing are directly linked to the move taken by the NDC."
"If we had all taken advantage of that chance at the time," she said, "everyone who wanted a card would have had one by now, and we wouldn't have seen the lines."