Sam George says this policy position is not just uninformed but shows the Minister is unfit for the office she occupies.
Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful had earlier hinted at possible sanctions for persons who have deliberately refused to take part in the SIM re-registration exercise or persons who have completed the first stage of the registration exercise but have not done the second phase will be blocked from accessing data services on 20th November 2022 and completely deactivated by November end.
She urged all persons yet to complete their registration to contact the National Communications Authority (NCA) or the requisite network operator if they require assistance.
In a written statement by the Ningo Prampram MP, he said “I have noted with renewed concern your ‘unofficial’, uninformed and retrogressive ‘directive’ to MNOs to deactivate data services on SIMs that have done stage 1 registration but not completed stage 2 registration,” he said in a Facebook post on Saturday.
I refer to the ‘directive’ as ‘unofficial’ because you have refused to write a letter either from the Ministry of Communications and Digitalization Ghana or the National Communications Authority Ghana to the Telecommunications Companies.
“You expect them to carry out your uninformed fiat by way of a press statement or Facebook post of yours? Really? Is that what you have reduced the distinguished office of Minister of Communications to?“
Meanwhile, the Ministry announced in October that 28,959,006 SIM cards have been linked to Ghana Cards so far.
This number represents 67.28% of the 42,749,662 total SIM cards issued nationally.
Furthermore, 18,930,664 SIM Cards have been fully registered, representing 44.28% of the total SIM cards issued.