A fifteen-member group calling itself Concerned Mobile Network Subscribers, has scheduled February 8 for a planned boycott of the SIM card re-registration exercise currently ongoing in the country.
The boycott dubbed “No Call Day” was set aside following consultation with Ghanaians across the country, the group stated in their press release.
On the set date, the group is calling on “Ghanaians not to make or receive phone calls as a way of registering our disquiet about the circus surrounding the SIM card re-registration exercise.”
The group, with personalities like Prof. Raymond Atuguba and Mr. Samson Lardy Anyenini says the government’s re-registration exercise is a breach of the constitutional rights of the citizen.
“There is no law in Ghana that requires Ghanaian mobile network subscribers to “Re-register” their SIM cards. Any attempt to impose this on subscribers or block their lines would amount to an infringement of their property rights”, a statement from the group said.
In simple terms, the group is demanding that the government suspends the exercise, put in place an appropriate legal framework, and adopt a better and innovative way of re-registering, to do away with the inhumane re-registration process.
“(I) The National Communication Authority (NCA) should immediately withdraw its directive for mobile network customers to re-register their SIM cards by 31st March 2022. (II) When the appropriate legal framework is in place, a re-registration exercise can be done without having subscribers spend productive hours and several days in long queues in the midst of a ravaging Covid-19 pandemic. (II) There’s understandably a need to eliminate crime. But the fight against criminals must be within the law. We, therefore, demand that the NCA and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) must come up with a better and innovative way of re-registering the SIM cards by first amending existing law; and secondly, to do so without the current inhumane re-registration process we are witnessing.”
The group says if the government decides to ignore their formulated demands, they will unfold the first of a series of planned boycotts until the right of customers to be treated with dignity is respected.
Members of the group include Mr. Ras Mubarak, Prof. Raymond Atuguba, Mr. Kofi Bentil, Mr. Franklin Cudjoe, Mr. Kofi Kakraba Pratt, Dr. Kwesi Owusu, Mr. James Afedo, Mr.Selorm Branttie, Mr. Francis Kofi Korankye-Sakyi, Mr. Samson Lardy Anyenini, Mr. Manasseh Azure Awuni, Akyaaba Addai – Sebo, Mr. Kwame Mfodwo, Ms. Amma Sarfo-Kantanka, Mr. Michael Ofori – Akuffo.
The SIM re-registration exercise began on October 1, 2021, and is scheduled to end in March 2022 after which SIM cards that haven’t been re-registered will be deactivated.
The exercise has been characterized by long queues, slow processes, and tiring off subscribers who visit their service providers to undertake the exercise across the country.
