SIM re-registration: Boycott phone calls on February 8 – Ghanaians urged

A group of 22 Ghanaians including the President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, former Member of Parliament for Kumbungu, Ras Mubarak, and some twenty prominent Ghanaians have urged citizens not to make mobile phone calls on Tuesday, February 8, 2022.

The call on Ghanaians is in protest of what they describe as the circus surrounding the SIM card re-registration exercise.

According to them, there is no law that requires the mobile network subscribers to Re-register their SIM cards hence should be stopped.

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 12 midday.

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, they said in a statement.

It added that any attempt to impose this on subscribers or block their lines would amount to an infringement of their property rights.

Our demands are as follows:

(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.

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.

Signed:

1. Hon. Ras Mubarak
2. Prof. Raymond Atuguba
3. Dr. Kwesi Owusu
4. H. E. Hassan Ayariga
5. Mr. Franklin Cudjoe
6. Mr. Kofi Bentil
7. Mr. Gyedu Blay Ambolley
8. Mr. Kofi Kakraba Pratt
9. Hon. Mrs. Mona Quartey
10. Mr. Samson Lardy Anyenini
11. Mr. James Afedo
12. Mr. Selorm Branttie
13. Mr. Francis Kofi Korankye-Sakyi
14. Mr. Manasseh Azure Awuni
15. Akyaaba Addai – Sebo
16. Ms. Amma Sarfo-Kantanka
17. Mr. Kwame Mfodwo
18. Mr Michael Ofori – Akuffo
19. Dr. Godfred Seidu Jassaw
20. Nana Kwaku Agyeman
21. Mr. Appiah Adomako
22. Mr. Sulemana Issifu

Gov't cautions

The government said failure to adhere to the new directive to re-register the SIM card will result in the loss of numbers.

Ursula Owusu Ekuful, the Minister of Communications said Ghana enacted the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Registration Regulations, 2011 (L.I. 2006) primarily to reduce mobile phone related crimes such as prank calls, cyber-crime, mobile money fraud, and its related issues and general security.

She stated that the enactment was also intended to help the law enforcement agencies to identify the SIM card owners, track criminals who use phones for illegal activities, curb incidents such as phone theft, hate text messages, mobile fraud activities, inciting violence, and to combat crime such as SIM box fraud.

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