NDC MPs threaten legal action against government over SIM card re-registration exercise
The Minority caucus in parliament has expressed its dissatisfaction with some arrangements and timelines regarding the current SIM card re-registration, describing it as tunnel-visioned.
It has therefore called for the immediate withdrawal of the threat of deactivation of SIM cards after re-registration exercise describing the move as illegal.
Aside from that, the group has also called on stakeholders involved to include other ID cards for the registration.
According to the caucus statement issued today Tuesday, October 5, 2021, the way and manner the exercise is being rolled out could be counterproductive.
The legislator for Ningo-Prampram revealed that the minority caucus has ” spoken to our lawyers to advise us on all legal options open to us on this matter”.
Also, the minority has recommended “the immediate withdrawal of the threat of deactivation of valid SIM cards by March 2022, the scrapping of the physical visit to an agent of a service provider for authentication of the registration document.”
Other recommendations they made include “an integrated referencing of databases of the Passport Office, DVLA, NHIA and SSNIT with the NIA database whose cards were used largely as primary registration documents for previous SIM registrations.”
Below is the Minority Minority Caucus statement on SIM card registration
We as the Minority in Parliament have followed the policy directive issued by the Honourable Minister for Communications and Digitalization on the registration of all SIM cards in the Country which started on the 1st of October 2021 and would last for six months.
This registration process is to be done in two phases including the linking of a Ghana Card to a SIM card and the physical visit to an agent of a service provider by a SIM cardholder for an integration process to be completed.
In as much as we support any attempts to sanitize the digital ecosystem, we strongly oppose any abuse of policy to unnecessarily inconvenience the citizens of Ghana. We find it most inappropriate that the policy directive issues a fiat of deactivating SIM cards that are not linked to the Ghana Card within the next six months. This we believe is a retrospective application of legislation and a tunnel-visioned approach to sanitizing the industry.
The current legislation that backs SIM registration in Ghana is the LI 2006 passed by Parliament in 2011. This legislation saw the registration that happened in 2012. This legislative instrument does not mandate the linkage of the Ghana Card to activate SIM cards.
The National Identification Authority Act, 2006 (Act 707) and LI 2111 which introduces the use of the Ghana Card as the principal document for registration of SIM cards and Bank Accounts amongst others cannot be applied retrospectively to SIM cards that were registered legally and legitimately under the existing Ll 2006. Section 7 of LI 2111 makes the use of the Ghana Card mandatory but does NOT make it the sole card for the purposes of registration.
It is imperative that we state that any attempt to stretch the mandate of El 63 to justify this latest directive on SIM cards as grossly misplaced. Section 100 of the Electronic Communications Act, 2008 (Act 775) which forms the basis for El 63 imposes a liability on the Service Providers to furnish the President with details of registered devices.
This duty does not extend to the customers of the Service Providers. It is in our considered opinion that this attempt to compel and threaten Ghanaians with deactivating their SIM cards come March 2022 is an unfortunate affront to the rights of Ghanaians.
To break this down, this new directive is akin to the Bank of Ghana issuing a fiat that bank accounts would be closed if account holders do not link their accounts to the Ghana Card. After all, the NIA act also mandates that Bank Accounts need to be backed by Ghana Cards.
Another inconceivable scenario would be the Passports Office issuing a statement that all passports must be revalidated because a few holders may have falsified the birth certificates or other primary documents used to acquire their passports. This is how ludicrous it sounds that to deal with some instances of fraudulently acquired SIM cards by unscrupulous persons would demand that all SIM cardholders must go back to register their SIM cards. This is simply not a pragmatic approach.
The claim that linking a SIM card to the Ghana Card would prevent fraud is flawed. The Ghana Card database is full of largely unverified GhanaPost GPS addresses which were hastily generated at NIA registration centres and not linked to the physical addresses of the registrants. It is important to note that residential mobility is high among the majority of Ghanaians and as such addresses in the NIA database cannot be the basis for an anticipated fight against SIM based digital crime.
Our recommendations on the SIM registration exercise are;
1. The immediate withdrawal of the threat of deactivation of valid SIM cards by March 2022
2. The scrapping of the physical visit to an agent of a service provider for authentication of the registration document
3. An integrated referencing of databases of the Passport Office, DVLA, NHIA and SNIT with the NIA database whose cards were used largely as primary registration documents for previous SIM registrations.
4. The use of Passports, Driver’s License and Voter’s ID cards to allow for the inclusion of more Ghanaians in the registration process.
We urge the Ministry of Communications and Digitalization to take these steps in good faith. We believe this would actually accelerate our digital ecosystem in this age of COVID-19.
We have also spoken to our lawyers to advise us on all legal options open to us on this matter.
By: Stella Annan | myactiveonline.com Twitter @activetvgh
