The National Identification Authority (NIA) never intended to register eligible people in time for the SIM card re-registration deadline.
With over two million people aged 15 and above still to be registered, NIA Executive Secretary Prof. Kenneth Attafuah stated that there is no way that NIA can register those people. Technically, it is physically impossible.
“We had said way back in March that it was impossible. I have said it is like expecting a maiden to make a baby every three months,” he added during a press conference on Friday.
“That is not how the physical and logistical system has been designed to respond. We cannot do that.”
Prof Attafuah further stated that the National Communications Authority was fully aware of these constraints when prescribing timeframes for SIM card re-registration.
He, on the other hand, claimed that such matters were beyond his control. It is not for the NIA to provide guidance on that since it is outside of its jurisdiction.
“However, I can say on authority that we have engaged actively with the National Communications Authority, and with the Minister [of Communications and Digitalisation] since last year.”
Persons who fail to comply with the directive to re-register their SIM cards will have them blocked after September 30.
The opportunity for re-registering SIM cards was extended on July 31, but a month later, the number of people who visited network service provider locations to have their SIMs registered decreased by 98 percent.
The National Communications Authority (NCA) was sued, with a group requesting that the Supreme Court declare the registration deadline and the associated punitive penalties for non-registration null and unlawful.
It claimed that the punitive measures violated the constitution.
