The National Communications Authority (NCA), has provided justification for the physical presence of Ghanaians at the various outlets of the mobile network operators (Telcos) to complete their SIM card re-registration exercise.

Nana Defie Badu, the Director of Consumer and Corporate Affairs at the National Communications Authority, while reacting to complaints of long queues at re-registration centres and the subsequent calls for the registration to be done digitally, averred that the Authority is trying to prevent the fraudulent activities that happened during the first mass SIM card registration.

“[The previous registration] gave room for fictitious registrations and it also gave room for pre-registered SIM cards. This current registration is going a step further to make sure that the person who has linked their Ghana card to their SIM card is that same person who owns the Ghana card to prevent SIM fraud.”
Nana Defie Badu

Registrants Causing Delays at Registration Centres

Nana Defie Badu, thus, blamed registrants for the long queues and the slow pace of the registration process.

According to her, a number of the registrants failed to complete the first stage of the registration process, hence spend a longer time with customer care representatives at the various telco centres to complete that stage before proceeding to complete the second stage.

“Most consumers fail to do the first phase of the exercise before they visit the mobile network operator or the agents. Going there without the first stage increases the time frame for engagement with the customer care representatives.”
Nana Defie Badu

The Director of Consumer and Corporate Affairs also alleged that many registrants refuse to leave the premises of the mobile network operators, even if they are advised to come the following day due to the limited number of persons that can be registered in a day.

“What is happening is that, even after they give tickets to these [limited] 100 customers, the customers who are not included in the quota for the data collection refuse to go away.”
Nana Defie Badu

Software Updates to Reduce Time Spent at Centres

In the intervening time, the Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber of Telecommunications , Ken Ashigbey, noted that he is hopeful an update to the software used for the SIM card re-registration process will help speed up the process.

“We know that there have been a lot of challenges and KelniGVG are the people who have developed the app to provide the second phase of the biometric verification. They have been running updates. There have been a lot of updates that KelniGVG has done and will be doing more.

“There is one that is due for Thursday evening, and all of it is supposed to speed up the process. There have been some bottlenecks with them and that is why we are having the queues at the various centres. We hope that this new update will quicken the process and make it faster.”
Ken Ashigbey

The National Communications Authority, however, assured that it will extend the March 31 deadline for the ongoing SIM card re-registration if it becomes necessary.