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Tag: NCA

  • NCA clarifies SIM deactivation exercise amidst telcos cry of revenue lose

    NCA clarifies SIM deactivation exercise amidst telcos cry of revenue lose

    Adnan Adams Mohammed

    The National Communications Authority (NCA) has come out to clarify the hanging pertinent issues concerning the fate of those individuals who do not have their Ghana cards as at now.

    It said, individuals yet to obtain their Ghana Card will not be affected by the ongoing SIM deactivation.

    The telecommunication companies, last week announced that subscribers who have failed to complete the biometric stage of registration will have some services disconnected. The services to be blocked are; voice, data (Mobile, phones, mifis, other data providing devices), SMS (incoming and outgoing) USSD, mobile money services and emergency services.

    “For those who do not have their Ghana cards and have not been able to register, those people will be exempt from any punitive measures pending the NIA giving them their Ghana card,” the Director for Consumer & Corporate Affairs at the NCA, Nana Defie Badu, noted in an interview, last week.

    She explained further that her outfit was opened to help address the concerns of the general public and their inability to register their SIM cards.

    “We acknowledge that there are some people who actually got to the stage where they actually linked the sim to the Ghana card but unfortunately, after doing that their Ghana card were either lost, damaged or through no fault of theirs, they could not proceed to do stage two.

    “So, for these people, we have actually asked that they should engage the NCA by calling our toll-free number. After we do an investigation and verify the issue, these people will also be put on the exclusion list pending them getting their Ghana cards reissued to them,” she said.

    Consequently, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Dr Ken Ashigbey, has said the blocking of some 9 million unregistered SIM cards will have a toll on the revenue of mobile network operators in the country.

    Dr Ashigbey explained that if each of the nine million subscribers spends, at least, GHS20 every month on all the various networks; that’s a huge revenue loss.

    That notwithstanding, the blocking of SIMs has to be done even though it is worrying, he said.

    Since November 20, the telecommunications companies in Ghana have been blocking data services for subscribers who have only linked their Ghana Card and SIMs (Stage 1) but have not captured their biometric data (Stage 2) as part of the SIM registration process as directed by the Ursula Owusu-Ekuful-led Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation

  • NDC condemns Akufo-Addo govt’s lawlessness and arbitrariness in the name of sim card re-registration

    NDC condemns Akufo-Addo govt’s lawlessness and arbitrariness in the name of sim card re-registration

    Read Full Press Statement:

    For Immediate Release

    10th September, 2022

    THE AKUFO-ADDO GOVERNMENT MUST STOP THE LAWLESSNESS AND ARBITRARINESS IN THE NAME OF SIM CARD RE-REGISTRATION.

    The National Democratic Congress has observed with great concern the new wave of challenges that have bedeviled the ongoing mobile SIM re-registration exercise by the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government. The party notes with utter dismay that right from the time this Government, through the Ministry of Communications decided to undertake a re-registration of mobile SIM cards of Ghanaians sometime in 2021, the exercise has been fraught with chaos and arbitrariness occasioned by the incompetence of the Ministry of Communications and the National Communications Authority.

    We are appalled that this objectionable impunity has reached an alarming point where the mobile SIM cards of innocent Ghanaians including those who have already undertaken the said re-registration are being restricted, thereby rendering many of our citizens incommunicado, helpless and frustrated.

    We hold the view, that this simple exercise of linking SIM Cards to the Ghana card of subscribers to check crime among others, could have been easily done by extracting the biometric data of persons who have registered for the Ghana card from the National Identification Authority and matching same with the database of the Telecos. The NIA has made this point, the NDC’s Minority Group in Parliament and Civil Society Organizations have backed same.

    Yet, the obstinate Ursula Owusu and the NCA will just not listen to these voices of reason but have chosen to make a fetish of a simple exercise of linking SIM cards to Ghana cards, thereby subjecting Ghanaians to needless long queues, loss of valuable working hours and sleepless nights.

    It is an indisputable fact that the re-registration of mobile SIM cards policy and its attendant sanctions that are being meted out to Ghanaians by the Ministry of Communications and the National Communications Authority are neither backed by the SIM Registration Regulations, 2011 (L.I 2006) nor the National Identity Register Regulations, 2012 (L.I 2111) or any law in force in the country. The decision by these entities to restrict the SIM Cards of Ghanaians including those who have already re-registered their SIM Cards is therefore unlawful, irresponsible and unacceptable to say the least.

    The NDC condemns in no uncertain terms this arbitrariness and recklessness on the part of the Minister of Communications and the NCA. Such mishandling and crass bungling of a simple exercise such as the ongoing SIM card re-registration can only be supervised by incompetent and clueless public servants like we have at the helm of the Ministry of Communications and the NCA.

    While we commend and encourage legal actions filed by citizens of the country who have been affected by the reckless SIM Card restrictions, we call on the Parliament of Ghana, particularly the Parliamentary Select Committee on Communications to call the Minister of Communications and the NCA to order in line with its oversight responsibility over these state entities. The lawlessness being displayed by the Minister of Communications, Ursula Owusu and the NCA must be halted now.

    Signed,

    Hon. Johnson Asiedu Nketia

    General Secretary