Telecommunication service providers in the country have been asked to consider stopping the sale of SIM cards on the streets.
This is because the practice has given itself to abuse by fraudsters who patronise the cards to obtain false identifications, to perpetuate criminal activities.
The call was made by Consumer Advocacy Center, the Ghanaian member of Consumer International, at a round-table in Accra.
According to the consumer advocates, street vendors who act as agents of the telecommunication companies are busily engaged in the sale of pre-registered SIM cards and do activate same to enable such cards engage in Mobile Money transactions, in sharp contrast to laws governing SIM card registration.
The President of the Consumer Advocacy Center, Prof Gosky Alabi provided video evidence during her presentation to confirm there is an ongoing practice where network providers and their agents are violating the Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) Registration Regulation (L.I.2006).
The law requires that subscribers do provide their personal details including residential and occupational address, date of birth and national ID card, all at the point of registration.
Professor Alabi argued that there is widespread abuse of the law regulating SIM card registration and therefore recommended that the telecommunication companies withdraw their SIM cards from their street vendors and sell such cards, only at designated offices.
