The Minority in Parliament has criticised the ongoing nationwide sim reregistration by the Communications Ministry, describing the use of the Ghana Card as discriminatory and unlawful.

On October 1, the Ministry began a nationwide sim reregistration to sanitise the digital ecosystem and minimize the rate of fraud-related activities involving the use of sim cards.

According to the terms of the six-month exercise, all sim card users across the country were required to link their current sim cards to their individual Ghana Cards.

However, the Minority in Parliament believes that this requirement is discriminatory and an affront to L1 2111 and other relevant legislation governing SIM registration in Ghana.

Addressing the press in Parliament Tuesday, Ningo Prampram MP and a ranking member on Parliament's Communication Committee, Sam Nartey George, argued that, even though Section 7 of L1 2111 makes the use of the Ghana Card mandatory, it does not make it the sole card for registration.

In his view, L1 2006, which was passed by Parliament in 2011, does not even mandate the linkage of the Ghana Card to active SIM Cards. Consequently, he described the decision by government to compel Ghanaians to re-register their SIM cards with the Ghana Card by March 2022 as an unfortunate affront to the rights of Ghanaians.

Speaking at the press conference, Member of Parliament for the Sagnarigu Constituency, A.B.A Fuseini, also decried the process and urged the Ministry to revise its decision.

In his view, the use of the Ghana Card will needlessly inconvenience a lot of Ghanaians, especially those in the rural areas.

Member of Parliament for the Bunkpurugu Constituency, Abed Bandim, also lamented that over the past few years, the National Identification Authority has been consistently insensitive to Ghanaians in the implementation of its policies.

In conclusion, the Minority urged the Ministry of Communication and Digitalisation to withdraw the threat of deactivating valid SIM cards by March 2022.

It also called for the scrapping of the physical visit to an agent of a service provider to authenticate the registration documents.

To make the process more convenient, the Minority further called for an integrated referencing of databases of the Passport Office, DVLA, NHIA and SSNIT by the National Identification Authority.

Lastly, the Minority argued that passports, Driver's License and Voter's ID cards should be incorporated into the process to enhance mass participation by all Ghanaians.