Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu Ekuful, has deemed quick loan customers who do not want to pay their debt and have refused to re-register their sim cards corrupt.
In her view, their actions and inactions are evil corruption and as such, warned that they would be found out.
She made the statement when addressing the press in Accra on Sunday, July 31, 2022, which was focused on the Rural Telephony Project, Girls-In ICT, and an update on the Sim Registration exercise.
“I have also been informed that some people who have obtained quick loans from their service providers have decided not to register those SIMs to avoid repaying the loans. That is evil corruption and you will be found out,” the Minister said.
Ursula Owusu-Ekuful also announced the extension of the deadline for the sim card re-registration exercise.
“The Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and the National Communications Authority (NCA) and I dare say the National Identification Authority have all engaged additional staff, procured the necessary logistics and are incurring significant expenses to conduct this exercise successfully.
“Any extension of the process increases their cost. Upon consultation with the industry and in view of the challenges enumerated above, I have very reluctantly decided to grant a final conditional extension.
“The programme will be extended to 30th September to end on the anniversary of its commencement. That will give us one full year of SIM registration. It will be reviewed at the end of this month and any SIM that has not been fully registered by the end of August will be barred from receiving certain services including voice and data services.
“It will also be more expensive to use unregistered SIMs. The full range of punitive measures will be announced at another press briefing in September. Kindly do not blame your service provider when you suffer that fate due to your own inaction. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.”
