Hundreds of subscribers of mobile network operators (MNOs) over the weekend thronged registration centres to avoid having their Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards deactivated.

This follows the directive of the National Communications Authority (NCA) to deactivate the over nine million SIM cards whose owners had not completed the re-registration process by close of yesterday.

These include subscribers who had completed stage one (Linkage of Ghana Card to SIM card) but had not completed stage two (Biometric Capture), "Not fully registered with the Ghana Card".

When the Ghanaian Times visited some telecommunication centres including Mobile Telecommunications Network (MTN), Airtel Tigo, and Vodafone in Accra yesterday, there were long queues of people, some who had been there as early as 3:00 a.m.

They complained about the stress they had to go through before they could have their SIMs registered with some saying they had been there the previous days but they never got their cards registered.

A vendor at the MTN Service Centre at the West Hills Mall in the Ga South Municipality, Vanessa Danso, pleaded with the NCA and the Ministry of Communication and Digitalisation to extend the deadline.

Ms Danso said she always met long queues at the centre, coupled with poor network for which reason she had been unable to complete the second stage of the reregistration process.

At the Darkuman branch of the MTN Service Centre, lots of people had to return home because of the long queue and the interrupted slow network of the machines being used in registering the cards.

Daniel Ladejo queried how he was going to have his card registered as he had lost his Ghana card.

He called on the government, to as a matter of urgency, institute measures to address the situation as his business would be affected if his SIM card was deactivated.

Likewise, at the Vodafone Service Centre at Circle, Felicia Benjamin said she received her Ghana card within the week and called for extension for persons who were yet to receive theirs.

Meanwhile, there still remains a window of opportunity for affected subscribers as all deactivated SIM cards can be reactivated within six months from the date of deactivation, only if they are able to go through the bio-capture process.

Deactivated SIM cards would also be recycled if they were not reactivated by the end of May 2023.