MMAAG says business of Mobile Money is already struggling with the impact of E-levy
Members of the Mobile Money Agents Association of Ghana (MMAAG) have called for the extension of the ongoing SIM registration exercise.
According to the group, the exercise should be extended to January 2023 to enable all Ghanaians who have challenges acquiring their Ghana cards to do so to enable them to use the card to register their SIM cards.
General Secretary of MMAAG, Mr. Evans Otumfuo, made the call for the extension in an interview on the Ghana Yensom morning show on Accra 100.5 FM after the association issued a statement to that effect.
According to him, the business of Mobile Money is already struggling with the impact of E-levy, and the deactivation of unregistered SIM cards after July 31, 2022, will only not affect their business but the entire Ghanaian populace too.
Below is the full statement:
REQUEST FOR EXTENSION OF SIM CARD RE-REGISTRATION EXERCISE
The management wishes to appeal to the Government and the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation in the interest of the gains made in the Communications industry to consider extending the deadline.
The Association has since endorsed this policy of Government due to its positive impact on our businesses by helping to curb fraud.
As business people in the industry, it will be very detrimental to our businesses and the industry, in general, should Government pursue the 31st July 2022 deadline since many Ghanaians running into several million are yet to be registered and issued the Ghanaian Identification card.
The business is already struggling with the impact of e-levy, and this blockage will only not affect us but the Ghanaian populace.
It's very clear that millions of our customers and our members are willing to update their credentials with the common denominator, unfortunately, access to the National Identification Authority's service is really frustrating and difficult.
We appeal that with realism and having considered the above inconveniences and challenges, the Government should extend the deadline to January 2023.
It's our pledge that we will support the government in this exercise through our various touch points across the country to ensure significant Ghanaians update their SIMs.
We believe this time frame should enable the NIA to decentralise the exercise for the smooth reach of Ghanaians.