Some nine residents in the Ningo-Prampram Constituency have filed an interlocutory injunction to restrain the National Communications Authority (NCA) from implementing punitive measures against unregistered SIM card subscribers.
The NCA has said network subscribers who default will not have access to any services, as their SIMs will be deactivated after September 30, 2022. In a writ shared by Member of Parliament for the area, Sam Nartey George, on Tuesday, the applicants want the High Court of Justice to restrain the “blocking, deactivating, restricting, churning and/ or in any other way or manner limiting the Applicants’ use of their Mobile Phone SIM Cards and Network Services until the complete and final determination of the substantive application for judicial review.”
“Subscribers will have a period of six months to register to redeem their SIMs, failing which their numbers will be churned – that is, re-assigned to the pool to be sold to potential new subscribers,” the Authority added in its statement dated September 4, 2022.
Mr George, speaking to the media, explained that the applicants have been deprived of their Ghana cards despite registering with the National Identification Authority, thus the need to seek legal redress as their current situation is no fault of theirs. “These are citizens who have complied with the directive and taken every reasonable step to get registered. Whatever is left is outside their control. Either for the NIA to provide them with the card that they have registered for,” he worriedly revealed.
“Some registered as far back as 2019, and they still haven’t received their cards. Others have registered, and the NIA has asked them to come for it in December. So in this case, they can’t do anything except what they have done,” he added.
The major challenge affecting the ongoing SIM card re-registration exercise has been registrants not receiving their Ghana Card promptly after registration. This is because the national identification authority issued card is the sole identification document for the SIM card re-registration exercise.
On July 31, 2022, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Minister for Communications and Digitalization, “reluctantly” extended the SIM card registration deadline for a second time to September 30, 2022, with conditions. Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful acknowledged that the government was having difficulties with the exercise because of the delays in the issuance of the Ghana card during a press conference to announce the extension.
“Upon consultation with the industry and in view of the challenges enumerated above, I have very reluctantly decided to grant a conditional extension. The programme will be extended to September 30th to end on the anniversary of its commencement, “she said.
Delays in the issuance of the Ghana card was the largest challenge bedevilling this exercise. My information is that the NIA has not been able to issue all eligible
persons with the Ghana card,” she explained.
Due to the challenges it is facing, the NIA has said it will be unable to register all Ghanaians before the September 30th deadline. “We cannot do that. There is no way that the NIA can register those people. It is technically, physically impossible. We had said way back in March that it was impossible. I have said it is like expecting a maiden to make a baby every three months,” Executive Secretary of the NIA, Professor Kenneth Agyeman Attafuah, told the press on Friday, September 16, 2022.
Some Ghanaians have challenged the Authority to implement its initiatives as planned in light of public concerns regarding the sanctions implemented by the
NCA. The Communications Minister, in rebuttal to the numerous public concerns, has however, advised mobile network subscribers “not to blame your service provider” for the sanctions yet to be implemented, stating that “to be forewarned is to be forearmed”.