The stakeholders in the ongoing sim re-registration process, according to Dr. Kenneth Ashigbey, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Telecommunications Chamber, need to identify strategies to encourage individuals to register their sim cards.
He claims that while some people have valid reasons for not registering, some Ghanaians who have already linked their Ghana Cards to their sim cards have refused to complete their bio-capture at the different telecom centres.
According to him, this is delaying efforts to clear the system's backlog of unregistered sim card customers.
Dr. Ashigbey said on JoyNews' PM Express that this could possibly be connected to Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the Communications Minister, who announced the deadline extension. "So yesterday morning, there was a sizable crowd of individuals waiting in the registration line. People began abandoning the lines and stating they were going home and would return as soon as the minister declared an extension.
"And even today, just before I arrived here, I was listening to Adom FM, where they were playing films that demonstrated how vacant the formerly busy locations truly were. Therefore, it is crucial that we find a mechanism to encourage the 20% of those who have only completed the 404 but not the bio-capture to register as we weed out those who actually lack the card or are unable to do so.
His remarks support prior claims made by the Communications Minister about certain Ghanaians who refused to finish the re-registration procedure.
She stated that there was a 90% decrease in sim registrations nationwide after the initial deadline extension to the 21st of March was announced on Sunday when announcing the deadline extension for the sim re-registration exercise.
There were no lines at any registration centre up until a week ago. After going to sleep when it was postponed, many began to hurry to register when they discovered the deadline was approaching.
"Around 50% of people who have finished the first part of the process have not finished the second level. They have linked their SIMS to the Ghana card thus it cannot be blamed to Ghana card challenges,” she stated.
She said that although she had unwillingly consented to yet another deadline extension, anyone who did not finish the procedure by the end of the new month would be subject to a variety of sanctions.
"The programme will continue through September 30 in order to terminate on the anniversary of its start. We'll have a full year of SIM registration after that. Any SIM that has not been properly registered by the end of August will be prohibited from obtaining certain services, including phone and data services, when it is evaluated at the end of this month. Using SIM cards that are not registered will also cost additional money.
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