The Minister of Communications and Digitalization, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, is scheduled to appear before Parliament today to address concerns regarding the SIM re-registration exercise.
This comes after over 8 million subscribers, including the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, had their SIM cards deactivated following the May 31 deadline for the exercise.
During a parliamentary session, Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram, Sam Nartey George, expressed concerns about the impact of the deactivated SIM cards on people’s livelihoods.
He attributed the delays in the release of Ghana Cards by the National Identification Authority as the reason behind the deactivations.
“Over 8 million SIM cards have been disconnected, including that of the Speaker of Parliament. His official SIM card has been disconnected, even though it was registered in the name of the Parliament of Ghana. My SIM card was also disconnected.
“We are insisting that the National Identification Authority provides us with the Ghana Card, so we can register our SIM cards. It is important that the Minister appears before us to answer questions,” he indicated.
He further stressed that many individuals have been affected by the disconnection, with their mobile money transactions disrupted.
Some nine million unregistered SIM cards were deactivated by telecommunication providers on Thursday, June 1.
This was in compliance with a directive by the NCA to re-register all SIM cards in Ghana.
The SIM registration exercise was expected to have lasted for a period of six months but was extended several times due to challenges.
The final deadline ended on May 31, 2023, leaving many to rush to NIA district offices across the country for their Ghana cards.