The National Communications Authority (NCA) has said it has completed the registration of 7,636,287 SIM cards in the ongoing SIM reregistration exercise as of February 25.
The figure for those who have just linked their number to the Ghana card stands at 12,861,763.
This comes despite the decision by some Ghanaians to challenge the legality of the registration exercise.
For instance, a Former Member of Parliament for Kumbungu, Ras Mubarak said the NCA and the telecommunication companies cannot block SIM cards if the owners refuse to re-register.
He said the re-registration exercise being carried out by the NCA has no grounding in law.
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He, therefore, called on Ghanaians not to waste their time joining queues to re-register their SIM cards.
In a short message forwarded to 3news.com earlier, Ras Mubarak who is among the prominent Ghanaians opposing the NCA said “If you have not re-registered your sim, do not waste your time. Neither the NCA nor the Telecos can block your SIM after 31st March. The re-registration is an affront to our constitution.”
Similarly, the Dean of the University of Ghana School of Law, Professor Raymond Atuguba also raised legal objections to the ongoing exercise.
According to him, it is the National Identification Authority (NIA) that has the power under the laws of Ghana to carry out such a mandate.
Prof Atuguba who is also among the group of prominent Ghanaians who earlier boycotted Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) on Tuesday, February 8 as part of their protests against the registration exercise told TV3 that “As far as I know it is the NIA that has the legal mandate to capture such data and store it.
“That mandate has not, legislatively, been given to the telecommunications companies, it has not legislatively, been given to even the NCA or the National Information Technology Agency (NITA). NITA’s functions do not include holding the biodata of citizens of tis country.”
The group who are against the registration exercise had earlier raised the issues in anticipation that the NCA would act on them. But they said in a statement on Sunday, February 6 that the NCA had failed to do so hence, the decision to boycott the MNOs.
Their earlier statement said “Following the failure of the National Communications Authority (NCA) and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to address concerns associated with the legality and chaotic Sim-Reregistration Exercise, we the undersigned Concerned Mobile Network Subscribers, and the over 7000 online petitioners, call upon our fellow countrymen and women to join our campaign for a #NoCallsDay boycott of the MNOs on Tuesday 8th February 2022.
“On Tuesday, we are appealing to Ghanaians and all mobile network users within Ghana not to make and or received calls and all associated mobile network activities from 6 am to 12midday.
“The #NoCallsDay boycott on 8th February would be the first in a series of national boycotts to protest against the illegal and inhumane process of re-registration of SIM cards.”
