The National Communication Authority (NCA) has announced measures to ease the human congestion which has characterised the ongoing nationwide SIM re-registration exercise.

In a statement issued by the NCA on January 6, the Authority acknowledged the challenges which have marred the process, including the long queues and human congestion at the customer care centres of Mobile Network Operators (MNOs).

“The NCA understands the frustration and inconvenience of customers in their bid to complete the second stage of the SIM Card registration process. As a result, the NCA has been working assiduously with MNOs and the SIM Card registration application developer to improve the registration process and mitigate the current challenges”, the NCA stated.

As part of the measures to address the challenges, the NCA has therefore announced the “deployment of additional registration points commensurate with the subscriber numbers of each MNO to ease congestion”.

According to the Authority, such “outlets such as distributor shops, retail centres and other agent touch points across the country are being used for the SIM registration exercise”. The NCA has therefore called on subscribers to embrace the move to make the process smoother.

The NCA has also announced “the deployment of various ad-hoc registration points at various public areas including lorry parks, churches, mosques, etc to ease the congestion at the customer care centres”. The Authority said regarding this policy, announcements will be made to update the public on the availability of such ad-hoc registration points in their respective localities.

In addition to the above, the NCA has indicated that it will create additional temporary locations at various government or state owned enterprises including NCA Regional Offices, Community ICT Centres established by the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communication (GIFEC), including nationwide post offices.

Finally, the NCA revealed that it will consider the “development and implementation of a daily quota and ticketing system for SIM registration bio capture at the customer care centres. MNOs will develop systems to schedule customers who have completed the first phase, to visit particular centres by a given date or window for the second phase of the registration”.

With these interventions, the NCA has therefore urged the general public to participate in the ongoing exercise, which is expected to end on 31^st March, 2022.

Earlier reports by the JoyNews team revealed that, scores of citizens had been frustrated by the process, with some threatening to abandon the exercise altogether. According to such aggrieved individuals, the long queues have been a disincentive to their participation in the exercise.

But the NCA has assured that it is working together with the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation and the MNOs to “ensure that the SIM registration process is enhanced to make it fast, secure, safe and convenient for customers”.

To participate in the ongoing exercise, mobile phone users are expected to complete the first stage of the process by linking their Ghana Cards with their SIM Cards, by dialing *404#. After that, they are required to visit a customer care agent for the final stage of the exercise.

When completed, the NCA says the exercise will help in reducing SIM related fraud, while creating a reliable data of mobile phone users across the country.