Since the deadline for the exercise has passed today, about 11 million active Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards that have not been re-registered with the Ghana Card yet risk being disconnected and deleted tomorrow.
Following this revelation, hundreds of individuals have flocked to several National Identification Authority (NIA) locations in an urgent effort to obtain their Ghana Cards, the majority of whom are attempting to register their SIMs for the first time.
The sole prerequisite identifying document required for the successful completion of SIM card re-registration is the national card.
There were lengthy lines of hurried card acquirers when the Daily Graphic visited several of the NIA locations, including the authority's Premium Centre at its head office in Shiashie, Accra, and other premium centres in other areas.
Before the May 31 deadline, many customers had come to connect their Ghana cards to their SIM cards in order to fulfil the NCA requirement.
While there are no crowds at the facility, which has the capacity to handle 650 applications, the NIA was forced to build canopies outside its halls to accommodate the growing crowds.
Professor Ken Agyeman Attafuah, the NIA's executive secretary, expressed sorrow that so many people would hurry to pay a premium of GH280 for a service that they could have received for free a few weeks earlier.
He claimed that some people had the mentality to put off getting a Ghana card until the deadlines were approaching.
According to Prof. Attafuah, the NIA would not be able to issue cards to all of the persons phoning at its premium centres based on its daily operating capacity and that of its main partners, CAL Bank, as well as the current availability of a restricted number of cards.
"At the moment, given the reality and the debt owed to the private partners, the public in need of the service is resorting to the premium registration service not because of the zest and urgency of their needs but because of the laid-down procedures, and we are trying to cope with this," he stated.
The NIA Executive Secretary stated that due to the authority's daily capacity of 650 at its head office and slightly less of that in other premium locations, it was not possible to give the cards to the thousands of applicants before yesterday's deadline for SIM card re-registration.
But he added that because of the approaching deadline, the NIA had to round up more staff to assist all of the applicants at its main office premium centre yesterday.
Apart from NIA offices, where Ghana Card services may be used without charge, Prof. Attefuah said that new registration points had been set up as the deadlines for SIM card re-registration became closer in order to relieve the burden.
"As a responsive state institution, we don't enjoy watching Ghanaians endure the agony of waiting in lines. Therefore, we provided these possibilities and facilities in the hopes that people would use them at no cost, according to Prof. Attafuah.
He claimed that it had been a common occurrence that whenever the deadline was extended, people grew careless, turning the majority of the cities into "ghost towns."
When the deadline for the SIM card re-registration was extended, he noted, "We see a phenomenon where the additional re-registration points and the traditional NIA offices become ghost towns, and whenever the deadline is approaching, we have a situation of an avalanche of demands and, in some cases, people stampeding even though this is at a cost."
blogpay
Total Comments: 0