Deadline for SIM Card – Ghana Card merger won’t be extended – Ursula warns.
Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Minister of Communications and Digitalization, has warned that the deadline for the merger of SIM Cards and Ghana Cards, which is the 31st of this month, will not be changed.
According to her, 12 million people have complied with the directive to complete the merger since the registration process began.
Speaking at a public forum in Kumasi, the Minister explained that the exercise is intended not only to protect the interests of telecommunications consumers, but also to clean up the industry.
Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful stated this at a Consumer Forum in the Ashanti regional capital of Kumasi.
The National Communications Authority, NCA, convened the Ashanti regional Consumer Forum on Telecommunication Services in Kumasi in accordance with Section 26 of the Electronic Communications Act of 2008, Act 775, which requires the Authority to solicit public feedback on the performance of service providers and network operators on a regular basis.
Seating arrangements for the heavily attended Kumasi Telecom Consumers Forum.
The Kumasi forum brought together a cross-section of society, including secondary and tertiary students, traditional and religious leaders, civil society, the media, trade associations, professional groups, public and private sector formal workers, security service staff, and telecommunication service providers, as well as regulators.
Members of the vulnerable society, such as the speech, hearing, and sight impaired, as well as the physically disabled, were also present.
Its purpose was to allow the regulator, service providers, and consumers to interact by allowing the public to generate complaints as feedback and the service providers to respond to the issues raised.
Participants were given ample opportunity to ask telecom service providers and the regulator questions or clarify lingering issues, such as why the public broadcaster is the only one that considers the hearing and speech impaired community in its programming.
Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Minister of Communications and Digitalization (left), and Mr. Joe Anokye, Director General of the NCA (extreme right), are seated at the 'high table.'
The Communications and Digitalization Minister warned that, the deadline for SIM Card and Ghana Card registration, which is the 31st of this month, less than two weeks away, will not be extended.
According to her, about 12 million people have so far complied with the merger policy directive and that anyone who fails to register register will lose his or her mobile telecom services.
According to Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful, “The SIM Card Registration Exercise is one of the consumer centered initiatives which has the key objective of creating a safe and secure environment for you to be able to use communication services with no fear whatsoever of any cyber attack.”
Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, toward an improved nationwide connectivity, government, through her ministry and partners, has embarked on an aggressive rural telephony project which led to the provision of 769 cell sites in the country since November 2020 out of which 360 are already delivering voice and data services to over 120 thousand subscribers in especially rural communities, while a National Roaming Service has as well been introduced for improved service delivery across the networks.
“As part of the efforts to prove customer experience, the National Roaming Service, which allows phones to automatically connect to the Mobile Network with the best Quality of service available in any area, regardless of which Operator one is primarily subscribed to, has been activated on the rural t l phony network dubbed RURALCOM”, the Minister stated.
In a speech read for him, Ashanti Regional Minister Simon Osei Mensah stated that the competition that has resulted from the liberalization of the telecommunications sector necessitates that the regulator also put in place mechanisms to protect the consumer's rights at all times.
The NCA's Director General, Joe Anokye, reminded telecommunication sector players of their responsibility to prioritize the rights and concerns of such individuals and organizations, noting that the number of telecom consumers has increased from a little more than 100,000 in 1996 to more than 40 million at the end of June this year.
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