Re-registration of SIM card an infringement of property rights – Concerned Mobile Network Subscribers
A group known as the Concerned Mobile Network Subscribers has indicated that it will be an infringement of property rights of Ghanaians if the sim card registration is imposed on subscribers.
According to the group, there is no law in Ghana that backs the SIM card re-registration exercise, adding that it has consulted Ghanaians across the country and have set aside a day to boycott calls in the country.
This, the group asserts, is to register its disquiet on the “circus” surrounding the SIM card re-registration exercise.
On the said day, which is February 8, 2022, Ghanaians across the country will not make or receive phone calls. The group made this known in a press statement issued on January 13, 2022.
The assertion by the Concerned Mobile Network Subscribers comes on the back of the ongoing sim card registration exercise and the challenges subscribers face.
“We, the undersigned Concerned Mobile Network Subscribers, having consulted Ghanaians across the country, have set aside Tuesday 8th February 2022 as a “No Calls Day.” On that day, we call on all Ghanaians not to make or receive phone calls as a way of registering our disquiet about the circus surrounding the SIM card re-registration exercise,” it said.
The statement noted again that, the “no calls day” will be the first in a series of national boycotts to protest against what it describe as inhumane process of re-registration of SIM cards.
“The No Calls Day boycott on 8th February would be the first in a series of national boycotts to protest against the current inhumane process of re-registration of SIM cards”.
The group, is therefore demanding that the NCA should immediately withdraw its directive for mobile network customers to re-register their sim cards by March 31, stating that a legal framework should first be put in place.
Read: Ghana debt moves deeper into distress as investors lose patience
The Concerned Mobile Network Subscribers in their statement demanded the following from the NCA:
(I) The National Communication Authority (NCA) should immediately withdraw its directive for mobile network customers to re-register their SIM cards by 31st March 2022.
(II) When the appropriate legal framework is in place, a re-registration exercise can be done without having subscribers spend productive hours and several days in long queues in the midst of a ravaging Covid-19 pandemic.
(II) There’s understandably a need to eliminate crime. But the fight against criminals must be within the law. We therefore demand that the NCA and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) must come up with a better and innovative way of re-registering the SIM cards by first amending existing law; and, secondly, to do so without the current inhumane re-registration process we are witnessing.”
Lastly, it stated that if its demands are not met, it will start from the February 8, the first series of its planned boycotts until the right of customers are treated with dignity and respect.
“If the NCA and the MNOs fail to heed these demands, we shall, starting Tuesday, 8th February 2022 begin the first of a series of planned boycotts until the rights of customers to be treated with dignity are respected,” it noted.
