As the Federal Government is yet to make it mandatory for the use of National Identity Number (NIN) for registration of new Subscriber Identity Module Card (SIM) cards, the Ghanaian telecoms regulator, National Communications Authority (NCA), this week, announced the mandatory re-registration of SIM cards, when the exercise is over.
Here in Nigeria, the telecoms regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), is yet to factor in use of NIN as a mandatory requirement for SIM registration even as it has continued to warn against use of pre-registered SIM card which remains the gateway for kidnapping and other organised crimes rocking Nigeria for too long.
Business Hilights Ghana Bureau chief reports that Ghana Card (National Identity Card), for which a mass registration and issuance for Ghanaian citizens is on-going and would in the Greater Accra Region on Saturday July 6, 2019.
Otherwise, the nationwide mass registration and issuance of the card, being carried out now by the National Identification Authority (NIA) which began Monday, April 29, 2019, in the Greater Accra Region will takeoff nationwide from July 15, 2019 to March 31, 2020.
According to Ghana News Agency (GNA), Head of Consumer and Corporate Affairs of the NCA, Nana Dufie Badu, announced the use of the Ghana Card for the SIM card registration, at a day’s seminar on the operations and activities of the NCA, organised by the Authority for members of the Parliamentary Press Corps (PPC) on Accra.
She however did not state how soon the Ghana Card would be used for the SIM Card re-registration after the exercise, but noted that about 41 million SIM cards, had so far being registered.
Dufie Badu made it clear that after a period of 90 days without any use of a SIM card, the card would be allocated to a new subscriber.
Just like here in Nigeria, the NCA made it clear that it remains an offence to do a pre-registration of SIM cards for users, and advised the general public to ensure that their SIM cards bear their own names and other details rather than those of the vendors.
In Nigeria, the Federal Government had made it mandatory for the use of NIN in obtaining a number of national documentations including the new ePassport and others.
