A group, identified as Concerned Mobile Network Subscribers, has declared February 8, 2022, as a “no calls day” to register its displeasure over the ongoing SIM card re-registration exercise.

They expressed that they are ready to risk losing their SIM cards and urged well-meaning Ghanaians to steer clear off their phones on the said day to drive home their distress.

Contained in a Facebook post made today, January 13, 2022, by Manasseh Azure, an investigative journalist who is part of the group, it explained that the No Calls Day boycott on 8th February would be the first in a series of national boycotts to protest against the “current inhumane process of re-registration” of SIM cards.

“We, the undersigned Concerned Mobile Network Subscribers, having consulted Ghanaians across the country, have set aside Tuesday 8th February 2022 as a “No Calls Day.” On that day, we call on all Ghanaians not to make or receive phone calls as a way of registering our disquiet about the circus surrounding the SIM card re-registration exercise”.
Concerned Mobile Network Subscribers

It argued that there is no law in Ghana that requires Ghanaian mobile network subscribers to “Re-register” their SIM cards. Any attempt to impose this on subscribers or block their lines, the group highlighted, will amount to an infringement of their property rights.

Demands from Concerned Mobile Network Subscribers

Following this, the group espoused some demands they desired relevant authorities to take up and address which includes the call on the National Communication Authority (NCA) to immediately “withdraw its directive” for mobile network customers to re-register their SIM cards by 31st March 2022.

Once the appropriate legal framework is in place, it indicated that a re-registration exercise can be done without having subscribers spend productive hours and several days in long queues in the midst of a ravaging Covid-19 pandemic.

“There’s understandably a need to eliminate crime. But the fight against criminals must be within the law. We therefore demand that the NCA and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) must come up with a better and innovative way of re-registering the SIM cards by first amending existing law and secondly, to do so without the current inhumane re-registration process we are witnessing”.
Concerned Mobile Network Subscribers

They stressed that if the NCA and the mobile network operators fail to heed to these demands, they shall, starting Tuesday, 8th February, 2022, begin the “first of a series of planned boycotts” until the rights of customers to be treated with dignity, are respected.

Prior to this, the NCA announced measures to ease the human congestion which has characterised the ongoing nationwide SIM re-registration exercise.

In a statement issued by the Authority on January 6, it acknowledged the challenges which have marred the process, including the long queues and human congestion at the customer care centres of MNO’s

“The NCA understands the frustration and inconvenience of customers in their bid to complete the second stage of the SIM Card registration process. As a result, the NCA has been working assiduously with MNOs and the SIM Card registration application developer to improve the registration process and mitigate the current challenges”.
National Communication Authority

As part of the measures to address the challenges, the NCA noted that there will be “deployment of additional registration points commensurate with the subscriber numbers of each MNO to ease congestion”.

It noted that outlets such as distributor shops, retail centres and other agent touch points across the country are being used for the SIM registration exercise and urged subscribers to embrace the move to make the process smoother.