Ghana: SIM Card Deactivation - More Continue to Mass up to Re-Register

Many people continue to mass up at telecommunication centres to register their Subscribers Identity Module (SIM) cards, days after being disconnected by the National Communication Authority (NCA).

The disconnection is as a result of their inability to register their SIM cards with their Ghana Cards on the orders of the NCA before the deadline of May 31, 2023.

Prior to the deadline, about 11 million subscribers were yet to register their SIM cards.

When the Ghanaian Times visited some re-registration centres in the Greater Accra Region, it was observed that hundreds of persons had massed up at the Darkuman Junction and Circle branches of the telecommunication networks, MTN and Vodafone respectively.

There were long queues with people dripping with sweat whilst others sat under tents frustrated.

A student, Edwin Agyiri Lamptey, at the Circle Branch of Vodafone Ghana expressed his frustration over the long hours he had to spend at the centre saying that he's been trying to reregister his SIM card for the past two days but to no avail.

"My SIM got blocked whilst in school so when I returned, I had to go and register it so I can be able to withdraw my money from my mobile money wallet but I've been stuck here since morning due to the long queue," he said.

He added that the Customer Service personnel at the centre have been complaining of poor network hence their inability to complete the registration process and the reason for the long queues.

At the MTN office at Darkuman junction, Mr Alfred Obeng said he received his Ghana card on Friday hence the delay in the registration adding that he had been in a queue since morning and was still not attended to.

He appealed to all telecommunication networks to speed up the registration processes to avoid long queues at the registration centres.

Another subscriber, Samuel Addison, revealed that his inability to register his SIM card before the deadline was because the name on his Ghana Card and the SIM card did not match saying that "he had to get it corrected at the National Identification Authority (NIA) before coming back to complete this process."

He complained about the process one has to go through to get the SIM registration done and urged the telecommunications company to create a better environment for the customers on their premises for subscribers.

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