SIM registration centres flooded with ‘Last minute’ deciders

Offices of most mobile phone network operators in the Kumasi metropolis have seen the resurgence of crowds eager to re-register their Subscriber Identity Modules (SIM) cards.

The crowd are mostly subscribers, who have either, now gotten their Ghana cards or had their SIM cards blocked by the telecom operators at the end of August 2022.

Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful Minister for Communications announced the extension of the SIM card re-registration exercise from the end of July to September 30, 2022.

She, however, warned during the announcement that those, who had not re-registered their cards by the end of August 2022, would have their SIM cards blocked by the telecom companies.

Some people were still unable to re-register their cards after the extension until the SIMs card have been blocked by their service providers.

The blockade seems to be biting hard and many subscribers are now rushing to get their cards reactivated and thereby creating congestions at some of the offices.

When Ghana News Agency (GNA) went round the MTN Offices to find out if people were still registering their SIM cards, surprisingly, most of the offices were crowded with subscribers.

The Atonsu-Agogo MTN office was virtually empty last week, but when GNA visited the premises on Friday morning, it was full of subscribers most of whom had their SIMs blocked.

Mr Calvin Mensah told GNA that he did register his SIM card but had not been able to make calls since yesterday.

Ms Adwoa Asantewaa admitted that she had not registered but was waiting until next week before going to register, but since her SIM had been blocked, she had to rush to the MTN office at Nhyiaso to register.

Some subscribers also complained bitterly that their late registration was because they had not received their Ghana cards.

At a designated MTN registration centre at Sofoline lorry terminal in the Kwadaso Municipality, subscribers were also crowded there.

Some went there as early as 0400 hours to queue and have their SIMS cards registered to avoid it being blocked.