Issues about Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card registration continue to form part of topical discussions in the country since it was first scheduled for October 1, 2021 to March 31, this year but had to be extended two times to September 30, to make it a full-year exercise.
The registration is for building a SIM database with integrity to curb fraudulent activities; secure SIM-card-based transactions; and help in determining the number of valid SIM cards across the telecommunications networks at any time.
As already stated, the registration had to be extended two times all because some mobile network subscribers had not been able to do it for various reasons.
The reasons included inability to secure the Ghana Card, the prerequisite for the registration and lackadaisical attitude towards it.
In fact, looking at the reasons for the registration, it should take only those using the cards for fraudulent activities to avoid it completely in the hope of discarding their cards or getting them permanently blocked.
However, this seems not to be the case and so the National Communications Authority (NCA) has been forced to put in measures to have a successful exercise.
Currently, besides what the telecommunications companies are doing, the NCA has introduced a self-service SIM Card Registration Application (App).
Called GH SIM SELF REG and currently available for download on the Google Play Store, the App is intended for subscribers who have done Stage 1 of their SIM card registration to move to Stage 2 to complete it.
Envisaging non-registration of some SIM cards on September 30, the NCA has introduced some measures to be applied thereafter.(See story on page 17).
The measures to be rolled out from today include blocking outgoing calls and data services for unregistered numbers categorised into five batches on the various networks for 48 hours( two days) once a week on rotational basis.
Subscribers who fully register their SIM cards within the period they have been blocked will only be unblocked by the mobile network operators (MNOs) after the 48 hours so the MNOs would not tamper with their systems intermittently.
The Ghanaian Times believes that the NCA has done what Napoleon could not do and so its efforts must be reciprocated by unregistered individuals and organisations by the end of this month to render the planned punitive measures non-effective or non-applicable.
The nation must be saved the hullabaloo that characterised the expiration of the initial six-month registration and the subsequent four-month extension, necessitating a further two-month extension that ends on September 30.
Should there be any defaulters at the end of this month, the NCA should go ahead with its punitive measures to send a strong message to the defaulters and others like them that they cannot continue to toy with important national projects and programmes.
Oftentimes, these people get some people who can rightly be described as saboteurs to speak in their favour and rather bastardise the government or its agencies undertaking the projects.
It is about time such saboteurs are told in the face that they are nation wreckers and thus deserve no right or honour to be listened to.
That way those they encourage to be reckless about and towards important national or even community projects and programmes would abandon their evil ways.
