The six-month exercise is set to begin today, October 1st. It is expected to collect data from all SIM card holders in the country. The Ghana Card, the country’s national ID card, is the only form of identity required for the exercise.
Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, announced the exercise early last month, stating that it was necessary owing to the increased usage of communication services since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as to facilitate E-education, among other things. “Only the National ID card, the Ghana card, issued to an individual shall be used for registration of SIM cards of citizens, foreign residents in Ghana and foreigners staying in Ghana for more than 90 days.”
But reacting to this, Mr. Franklin posted on Facebook that he didn’t understand why the Ghana card is the only ID that can be used for the re- registering if the SIM cards.
According to Ursula Owusu-Ekuful “Foreigners visiting Ghana can acquire a SIM card using the passport or travel card but they can only use the SIM card for 30 days after which it will be deactivated. “Foreigners intending to use the SIM card for more than 30 days would have to obtain a non-citizen Ghana card to do so.” A maximum of 10 SIM cards can be registered by an individual and they should not be below 15 years of age.
If there are fake SIM cards in the system, how is that the doing of those millions of us who registerd earlier legitimately? Shouldn’t the Telcos be asked to identify and block those fake cards? Exactly how will the National ID card being the sole identity requirement for a RE-REGISTRATION of all SIM cards prevent the infiltration of fakes? Nor can any ID actually do so? So, if we all yield and re-register, we will not have fake IDs, ever? And if there are fakes in the near future, we all get asked to re-register again? What is this?
Source: Ghanapubliceye.com/Jennifer Owusu
