The Member of Parliament for Bunkpurugu in the Northern Region, Abed-nego Azumah Bandim has advised the National communications authority (NCA) to withdraw the punitive measures towards the registration of Sim cards.
The NDC’s MP’s call is in relation to the NCA’s mandate to block all unregistered sim cards after August 31 2022. NCA formerly said it will serve as punishment for recalcitrants.
A lot of people in the country, today September 8, 2022, have lamented their Sim-cards are blocked just as the NCA earlier stated.
Speaking on Oyerepa Breakfast Time, Azumah Bandim stated that, the NCA should withdraw the punitive measures.
According to him, half of the country’s population does not have the National Identification Card solely used for sim card registration.
“The NIA Card which is used solely for the sim card registration isn’t available to all Ghanaians. ”
The NIA said 30.8 million people are eligible for the registration exercise.
But Azumah Bandim claimed that “if you go to the NIA website, only 15 million Ghanaians have been able to get the cards. It means that more than half of Ghanaians don’t have an NIA card which Ursula Owusu and NCA have chosen to use as the sole registration requirement.”
He added that people who haven’t been able to register their Sim-cards are not at fault because they don’t have the requisite requirement for the registration exercise.
Per him, the NCA should as soon as possible rescind its decision on the punitive measures and collaborate with the NIA on how people can quickly access the Ghana card necessary for the sim card registration.
“…When you do that without talking to the NIA to obtain statistics about the number of people who possess the card, and you’re punishing them, then it’s unfair and infringement of their freedom of expression.
“So I’m calling on NCA to withdraw the punitive measures they have introduced.
Because it’s not their fault that they don’t have the NIA cards to register.” The Bunkpurugu lawmaker stated.
