The Minister of Communication, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has declared that the government won’t extend the current deadline for the sim card registrations.
She said the directive to flush out all unregistered sims will be in full effect after the deadline passes by the end of July.
Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said this during the climax of the Ahafo Regional celebration of the Girls-in-ICT Initiative held at Acherensua in the Asutifi South District on the theme “Access and safety.”
Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said mobile phone subscribers and users in the country had been provided with enough time and opportunity to register their SIM cards saying, “there is no way we are going to extend the deadline again.”
She explained that SIM card registration was essential because the exercise would greatly help the country in its efforts to prevent online and cybercrimes that had become more sophisticated.
The Girls-in-ICT initiative, one of the flagship programmes of the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation (MoCD) was in line with the International Girls-in-ICT Day, an initiative introduced in 2012 and backed by all International Communications Unions (ITU) in the Member States.
It aimed at encouraging and empowering girls and young women to consider studies and careers in ICT in the growing fields of ICTs, enabling both girls and technology companies to reap the benefits of greater female participation in the ICT sector.
However, the NDC MP for Ningo Prampram, Sam George has said that the sim registration is illegal and it won’t solve anything.
Speaking on TV3, Sam Goerge said “The point must be made that this extension will buy some time, but will not fix the problem. Given the magnitude of the problem, the extension is not sufficient enough. The solution to this problem is what we are going to move on to now.”
“We have managed to secure the extension, what we are going to do now is to challenge the legality of the procedure, that is our next line of action, we are challenging the legality of the SIM registration process as ongoing. We are not saying SIM registration is illegal, we are saying the procedure and the methodology the Minister has laid out through the NCA is illegal,” he added.