According to Bright Simons, the re-registration exercise logically could be done together with the registration for the National Identification Cards (Ghana Card) but this is not being done because of the personal interest of some people at both the NIA and the ministry.
“Procurement is at the root of all the major scandals we have had in this country which involves money if you look closely. I can assure you that all the problems, we are facing with the SIM card (re-registration), the irrationality of the fact that people don’t have the Ghana Card but people are still insisting you should use the Ghana Card.
“If you delve into it very seriously (you will find out that) it is actually because there are private companies behind both sides – the people that are doing the Ghana Card stuff and the people that are doing the SIM registration stuff and they are competing amongst each other.
“So, the simplest thing which should have been that when I was doing my Ghana Card, you will take my phone number, send me a text message to establish that is actually my phone number. And then you will connect the data that has my biometric and that is the end of it, my card is registered. The reason why they will not allow you to do that (is because) it offends some people’s private interests. That is the only reason,” he said at the 2022 Baah-Wiredu Lecture in Accra.
Meanwhile, the National Communication Authority (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.
It added that persons who fail to register their SIM cards before the September 30 deadline would have their numbers blocked permanently.
But, the Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Prof. Kenneth Agyeman Attafuah, has stated that his outfit cannot issue Ghana Cards to all persons who need them to register their SIM cards before the stated deadline.
This means that not all the nearly 2 million Ghanaian phone users who do not 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 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.
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Ursula Owusu-Ekuful (right), Kenneth Agyeman Attafuah (left)