By: Nicholas Osei-Wusu
The Minister for Communications and Digitalization, Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has warned that the deadline for the merger of SIM Cards and Ghana Cards, which is the 31st of this month remains unchanged emphasizing that the date will not be changed.
According to her, since commencement of the registration exercise, 12 million people have complied with the directive to complete the merger.
Addressing a public forum in Kumasi, the Minister explained that the exercise is not only meant to protect the interest of telecommunication consumers, but also to sanitize the sector.
Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful made this known at a Consumer Forum in the Ashanti regional capital.
The Ashanti regional Consumer Forum on telecommunication services in Kumasi was at the instance of the National Communications Authority, NCA in compliance with Section 26 of the Electronic Communications Act of 2008, Act 775 which mandates the Authority to periodically ascertain public views on the performance of service providers and network operators.
The Kumasi forum brought together a cross section of the larger society including second cycle and tertiary students, traditional and religious leadership, civil society, the media, trade associations, professional groupings, public and private sector formal workers, security service staff and telecommunication service providers and the regulators.
Also present were members of the vulnerable society such as the speech, hearing and sight impaired and the physically disabled.
It was to enable the regulator, service providers and consumers interact through generation of complaints as feedback by the public while the service providers respond to the issues raised.
The participants were given ample opportunity to ask the telecom service providers and the regulator questions or clarify lingering issues including why it is only the public broadcaster that factors the hearing and speech impaired community in its programming.
The Communications and Digitalization Minister warned that, the deadline for SIM Card and Ghana Card registration, which is the 31st of this month, less than two weeks away, will not be extended.
According to her, about 12 million people have so far complied with the merger policy directive and that anyone who fails to register register will lose his or her mobile telecom services.
According to Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful, “The SIM Card Registration Exercise is one of the consumer centered initiatives which has the key objective of creating a safe and secure environment for you to be able to use communication services with no fear whatsoever of any cyber attack.”
Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, toward an improved nationwide connectivity, government, through her ministry and partners, has embarked on an aggressive rural telephony project which led to the provision of 769 cell sites in the country since November 2020 out of which 360 are already delivering voice and data services to over 120 thousand subscribers in especially rural communities, while a National Roaming Service has as well been introduced for improved service delivery across the networks.
“As part of the efforts to prove customer experience, the National Roaming Service, which allows phones to automatically connect to the Mobile Network with the best Quality of service available in any area, regardless of which Operator one is primarily subscribed to, has been activated on the rural t l phony network dubbed RURALCOM”, the Minister stated.
In an address read for him, the Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, noted that the competition that has come along with liberalization of the telecommunication sector requires that the regulator also puts in place mechanisms to secure the right of the consumer at all times.
The Director General of the NCA, Joe Anokye, in disclosing that the number of telecom consumers has shot up from a little over 100 thousand in 1996 to more than 40 million at the end of June this year, reminded the telecommunication sector players of their responsibility to prioritize the rights and concerns of such persons and organizations.
