Eric Sosu, a communication team member for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has described the SIM card re-registration exercise as retrogressive and unpleasant.
According to him, the various telecommunication companies should ride on the digitalization projects established by the government to facilitate and make the re-registration process smooth.
“Why are we not using the digital process we established to complete the registration process with operators? Ghanaians should only visit the offices of these telcos only when they encounter difficulties. The situation is very worrying so I think telcos without offices in some areas should introduce mobile offices. The process has to be done seamlessly to tackle all these challenges,” he told Kwaku Dawuro on Kingdom FM’s Anopa Nkomo socio-political show.
He described the process as a “waste of productive man hours,” adding that the convergence by people at one place, most of whom were without masks, could derail the gains made in the COVID-19 prevention and control.
Eric Sosu suggested an extension of the deadline for the process and asked for the registration to be done digitally. “I think the registration should be reviewed and improved upon. We cannot tolerate this activity because it is hectic. I believe the registration should be fully online if possible. If people in rural areas can access places using the digital address system, what prevents the telcos from using the digital process? Now is the perfect time to make good use of our digitalization drive,” he added.
The comments come at the back of the recent ugly scenes at the various telecommunication premises, with lots of people congested to finalise their SIM re-registration process. Ghanaians took to social media to express their dissatisfaction in the process. Some worried about the spread of Covid-19 while others questioned government’s digitization drive.
On October 2021, the Government of Ghana issued the re-registration of SIM cards through the National Communications Authority (NCA) in an attempt to check cyber fraud. The exercise is expected to end on March 31, 2022, with persons who fail to partake would have the SIM cards blocked.
