Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the minister of communications, has refuted claims that mobile subscribers whose SIM cards have not been registered with a Ghana Card have had their numbers deactivated.
Government through the National Communication Authority has ordered mobile network operators to deactivate SIM cards of subscribers who have gone through the first phase of the registration exercise but are yet to compete the process.
Since Thursday, December 1, Telecommunication Networks have commenced imposing sanctions against unregistered subscribers, including deactivating SIM cards that had successfully completed the first step of registration but had not yet finished the second.
There are, however, reports that subscribers without Ghana cards to complete the registration process have also had their SIM cards deactivated.
In a statement made during the parliamentary budget debate, Ursula Owusu-Ekkuful denied the claim made by A.B.A Fuseini, ranking member of the communications committee, that users without Ghana Cards had their SIM cards deactivated.
“People who did not have Ghana Cards have had their cards blocked, and I said No, that has not happened. It is those who have completed the first phase of the exercise by linking their cards to the SIM cards but had not gone on to do the biometric capture that has had their SIM cards blocked.” the minister stated
She claims that these subscribers will soon be required to use other IDs for registration and accuses the minority of deceiving Ghanaians into boycotting the Ghana card registration process at its commencement.
Meanwhile, myriad of Police personnel have been dispatched to some SIM registration centers in Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital, to prevent any potential chaos.
The customers complain that despite successfully completing the re-registration, their SIM cards have been deactivated.
There is growing frustration among affected customers at the various centers who say they cannot access major services on their mobile phones like calls, data and mobile money transactions after their SIM cards were deactivated.
