[ 2015-04-01 ]

SIM card re-registration to start by end of 2015
All mobile phone SIM cards will be re-registered
after the National Identification Authority (NIA)
finishes distributing the Ghana Cards to citizens
by the end of the year, deputy Minister of
Communication Mr Ato Sarong has said.

Mr Sarpong said the re-registration has become
necessary due to the ineffectiveness of the
previous exercise because there was no uniformity
in the ID cards used for the registration, a
situation he said makes it difficult to
authenticate and identify mobile phone uses.

Speaking at a consumer forum organised by the
National Communications Authority in Ho, Mr.
Sarpong said: “Some time back, we [NCA] got
almost all consumers to register their SIM cards;
we have come to the conclusion that there were a
bit of gaps in that exercise, because we do not
have harmonised or one common ID card to use for
the registration.”

“As a result of that we’ve identified a lot of
flaws within the telecommunication area, because
we’re not able to identify people, as we
should.

“We are expecting that when the National
Identification Authority is done with the issuance
of national I.D cards, the process for the
registration of SIM cards will be redone,” Mr
Sarpong said.

Parliament in 2012 adopted the Subscriber Identity
Module Registration Regulations, 2011 (L.I. 2006)
to give backing to SIM card registration in the
country.

The Legislation provided that from 2012, no SIM
card could be used if not duly registered.

Consequently, all the six mobile phone networks
were barred from issuing new SIM cards without
having them registered. Existing Subscribers were
also forced to register the cards before they
could continue using them.

The Director General of the National Communication
Authority (NCA), Paarock VanPercy noted that there
have been steady growth in the communications
industry and as of now there are more than 31
million mobile phone subscribers countrywide. This
means all 31 million SIM cards will all be
registered with the same ID card – Ghana Card.

Source - Starrfmonline

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