Minister for Communications and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has suffered an increased and sustained verbal attack with near-insults, especially on social media, on her office and person for leading the government’s directive for a nationwide re-registration of all SIM cards and linking same to the Ghana Card.
The July 31, 2022 set deadline for the re-registration after which all unregistered SIM cards were to be deactivated was however postponed at the eleventh hour to September 30, albeit under pretty complex terms and conditions.
Ursula, a tough politician cum lawyer with ‘balls of steel’ as her hallmark, has stood her ground in the midst of the attacks and insisted the directive for the re-registration is well intended and would greatly help Ghana in her efforts to prevent online and cybercrimes that have become sophisticated and destroying the country’s image.
The Minister has insisted that despite the challenges and hiccups the re-registration exercise has suffered, the intended positive objective behind the directive should be the focus while genuine steps are taken to address the implementation challenges as and when they pop up.
She explained that the exercise is of critical national interest and would help law enforcement agencies to identify SIM card owners, track criminals who use phones for illegal activities, curb phone theft, hate text messaging, mobile fraud activities, SIM Box fraud, among several other issues confronting the country’s security.
Quite uncharacteristic of her, Ursula has completely ignored the offensive attacks on her person as she has remained focused on getting the National Communications Authority (NCA), the telecommunication companies and other relevant stakeholders to co-operate and get the SIM cards re-registration done with a sense of urgency.
Extension
On Sunday, July 31, 2022, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful told a presser in Accra that the SIM-card re-registration exercise has been once again, extended to the end of September this year.
Addressing journalists, Madam Ursula said the extension followed consultations with relevant stakeholders.
“Upon consultation with the industry and in view of the challenges enumerated above, I have very reluctantly decided to grant a conditional extension. The programme will be extended to 30th September to end on the anniversary of its commencement.”
“That will give us one full year of SIM registration. It will be reviewed at the end of this month and any SIM that has not been fully registered by the end of August will be barred from receiving certain services including voice and data services,” she said.
In addition, to solve the long queues at various network providers, she revealed the government is preparing to launch a mobile app – which would be available for download on both android and IOS to enable the public re-register their SIM cards in the comfort of their homes.
The app she indicated is an innovative way to add up to the already way of doing the registration, adding that there will be public education on the use as part of its roll-out.
“The SIM Registration App will be available for download on both android and IOS this week barring any unforeseen circumstances. Each registration via the app will be subject to a 5 cedi surcharge.”
Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
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Confused..In UK you just go to any shop and pick up any sim card for free and use it without registering any card. In other countries you register your sim card without a national ID, but just online to fill small details not anyone requesting you to provide ID to register your SIM. What is the motive behind registering just a common sim card with ID? Why even Ghana card in the first place. NPP government don't accept birth certificate or Ghana passport which is accepted by all countries when travelling.. messed up country. So sad.
The main challenge facing so called politicians in Ghana is that they are paid to talk, not to think. The minister is very much aware that people are having genuine challenges to access a Ghana card. Why should it take a Ghanaian to travel all the way from bolgatanga in the upper east region to travel to Accra, a journey of close to 18 hours by road to get his or her damaged or missing Ghana card replaced? Under the current near collapsed economy you need close to GHC 800.00 to travel from bolgatanga to Accra in and out. What of if one is not financially sound to undertake such a needless travel if so called politicians think through before rolling out policies. If the Ghana card was the constitutionally mandated card to enable one to vote in Ghana , bet me they would have found means to make the acquisition of the Ghana card very easy and smooth because they stand to gain. You don't roll out a policy knowing the challenges and still go ahead to give deadlines. People are insulting these politicians because they are fed up with them. The " throw sachet water at a politician" festival in Kumasi is a clear case of what happens when the citizens lose trust in people they elected. It's the people who voted to make your party win for which you are appointed ministers, MP's , MMDCE's , CEO's etc. The politician didn't vote for any Ghanaian to qualify to be a voter, they better be careful. But for politics how many politicians in Ghana will ever sit in a V8 let alone owning one. They better be very careful.