Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, Sam George has called on the National Communications Authority and the Ministry of Communications to explore avenues that could help expand the process of the SIM re-registration.

This, according to him, is because "it is sad, pathetic and heartbreaking to see the endless queues during productive working hours and at the time the Omicron Covid-19 variant is spreading in communities."

In a post on Facebook on Thursday Mr. George wrote “on a matter of principles, I am NOT against a SIM card re-registration. I am however against the narrow and cumbersome approach the National Communications Authority and the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation have taken. I believe the interpretation of L.I. 2006 and the combined effect of L.I. 2111 do not sum up to the dreadful spectacles we see.”

The MP urged the Communications Ministry and the NCA to expand the admissible documents for registration to include the voter's ID card and the Ghanaian passport.

“Secondly, the Ministry should deploy a self-registration app and shortcode that allows you to upload the details of these biometric cards (Ghana card, Voter's ID card & Ghanaian passport),” he added.

This follows a visit to some SIM card re-registration centres by JoyNews to ascertain the progress of the exercise. After hours of monitoring, it was observed that the exercise had been marred by long queues, leaving many subscribers frustrated. Some also expressed their anger at the slow pace of the exercise.

Others, according to the JoyNews team, were willing to abandon the entire process due to its cumbersome and stressful nature. For them, a more convenient system should have been put in place to eliminate the hurdles surrounding the current manual approach.

However, Sam George believes that the approach to expand the process as suggested would protect Ghanaians in this pandemic era and ensure massive compliance with the registration directives and provide a safer digital ecosystem.

“I hope the Ministry takes these suggestions in good faith and explore implementation protocols. Happy New Year and GOD bless our Homeland, Ghana,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Dr. Ken Ashigbey has revealed that the National Communication Authority (NCA) has met with mobile operators to address challenges posed by the ongoing SIM card re-registration exercise.

Reacting to these concerns, Mr. Ken Ashigbey mentioned that as technicians and stakeholders, they are considering smoother means to ease the growing inconveniences.

“The self service that we’re doing at the first stage, we should be able to design a system again that enables some people to do some self service, even with the biometric capture.