This means that not all the nearly 2 million Ghanaians phone users who do have the Ghana Card yet will be able to register their SIM cards before September 30, 2022 deadline.
According to Prof. Attafuah, the NIA currently does not have the capacity to print Ghana Card for the Ghanaians who need them to register their SIM Cards, citinesroom.com reports.
“There is no way that NIA can register those people. It is technically physically impossible. We had said way back in March that it was impossible. I have said it is like expecting a maiden to make a baby every three months.
“That is not how the physical and logistical system has been designed to respond. We cannot do that,” he said.
The NIA boss went on to say that National Communications Authority (NCA) was fully aware of the limitation of his outfit.
“It is not for NIA to proffer advice on that as it falls outside its mandate. However, I can say on authority that we have engaged actively with the National Communications Authority, and with the Minister [of Communications and Digitalisation] since last year,” he noted.
The NCA, on September 5, 2022, announced that persons who have not registered their SIM cards would be barred from receiving certain services, including all outgoing voice calls and data services.
The NCA explained in a statement that the move forms part of punitive actions ahead of the SIM re-registration deadline, which takes effect on September 30, 2022.
The NCA, however, reiterated that persons who fail to register their SIM cards before the September 30 deadline would have their numbers blocked permanently.
Minister of Communication, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has indicated that as of July 28, 2022, there were 42,121, 921 SIM cards with 25,260,661 voice SIMs completing stage one of the registration process, representing 60 per cent of the total registration.
The Minister said stage one had 16,861,260 unregistered SIM cards representing 40 per cent while 16,590,350 SIMs representing 38 per cent had fully completed the stage one and stage two registration process.
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Executive Secretary of NIA Kenneth Agyeman Attafuah