Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the minister for communications and digitalization, has been the target of an intensified and ongoing verbal attack, including near-insults, particularly on social media, for leading the government's directive for a nationwide re-registration of all SIM cards and linking those to the Ghana Card.
However, the re-registration date of July 31, 2022, after which all unregistered SIM cards were to be deactivated, was unexpectedly postponed to September 30, although with some very complicated terms and conditions.
The directive for the re-registration, Ursula insisted, is well-intended and would greatly aid Ghana in her efforts to prevent online and cybercrimes that have grown sophisticated and are damaging the country's reputation. Ursula is a tough politician turned lawyer who is known for having "balls of steel."
The Minister has stressed that notwithstanding the difficulties and setbacks the re-registration process has encountered, the directive's intended positive purpose should be the main concern while sincere measures are done to overcome the implementation difficulties as they arise.
She went on to say that the exercise is vitally important for national security and will aid law enforcement agencies in a number of ways, including identifying SIM card owners, tracking criminals who use phones for illegal purposes, stopping phone theft, hate texting, mobile fraud activities, and SIM Box fraud, among other security-related issues.
Unusually for her, Ursula has chosen to pay little attention to the violent assaults on her person in favour of pressing the National Communications Authority (NCA), the telecommunications providers, and other key parties to cooperate and finish the urgent SIM card re-registration.
Extension
At a press conference in Accra on Sunday, July 31, 2022, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful announced that the SIM-card re-registration process has once again been prolonged till the end of September. Speaking to reporters, Madam Ursula stated that discussions with pertinent parties led to the prolongation.
"I have very reluctantly decided to give a conditional extension after consulting with the industry and in light of the difficulties listed above. The programme will continue through September 30 in order to terminate on the anniversary of its beginning.
We'll have a full year of SIM registration after that. Any SIM that has not been properly registered by the end of August would be prohibited from obtaining certain services, including phone and data services, she added. It will be evaluated at the end of this month. She also stated that the government is preparing to release a mobile app, which would be available for download on both Android and IOS, to allow the people to re-register their SIM cards in the comfort of their homes, in order to alleviate the lengthy lines at various network providers.
The app she mentioned is a creative addition to the current registration process, and she added that as part of its rollout, there would be public education on its usage.
If nothing unexpected happens, the SIM Registration App will be ready for download this week on both Android and iOS. A 5 cedi fee will be applied to each registration made using the app.
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Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the minister for communications and digitalization, has been the target of an intensified and ongoing verbal attack, including near-insults, particularly on social media, for leading the government's directive for a nationwide re-registration of all SIM cards and linking those to the Ghana Card.
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