Ursula Owusu-Ekuful
The Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has said government through her ministry will launch the National SIM Card Registration Exercise across the country next month.
The exercise, which has failed in previous attempts, will mandate network operators or service providers to activate a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) only after the subscriber registers the SIM as directed by the National Communication Authority (NCA) under the Subscriber Identity Module Registration Regulations, 2011, L.I 2006.
Taking her turn at the weekly media briefing of the Ministry of Information yesterday, Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful explained that the SIM registration would help reduce or eliminate fraudulent and cybercriminal activities currently rocking the system.
She said it would also help the authorities ascertain the accurate number of valid and accurate SIMs on the networks, enable operators to build better demographics of their customer-base and help them develop products and services to suit the various groupings while enabling the regulator, NCA, to also get more accurate data to regulate the industry.
She said every subscriber is required to provide the name and residential or occupational address, date of birth, in the case of an individual; and certificate of incorporation, in the case of a body corporate; or registration, in the case of a partnership or an unincorporated body of persons; and an identification document to facilitate the registration.
CEIR Project
She said the government would also set up a Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) to register handsets and equipment alongside the SIM registration.
The CEIR will connect Mobile Network Operators systems in a non-intrusive manner in order to aggregate all International Mobile Equipment Identities (IMEIs) coming from all the local operators in a single national IMEI database.
Mobile device manufacturers estimate that about 5 million mobile devices are imported into the country annually, but the necessary customs duties and taxes are paid on only 60 % of these imports.
Data from Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) confirms that 40 per cent of these mobile devices enter the Ghanaian market illegally, without government benefiting from the expected tax revenue.
This, the Minister said, would help address the challenge of the smuggling and trade in counterfeit, stolen and substandard mobile devices and increase the potential for enhanced revenues for government.
Girls-in-ICT
The government’s vision of empowering the youth with digital skills to thrive in the new world order is taking shape with Girls-in-ICT project.
Under the Girls-in-ICT project, 584 girls from eight districts in the Oti Region were trained on basic computer skills, coding and HTML in 2020. The government is projecting to train 3,000 girls in three of the newly-created regions namely, Western North, North East and Savannah regions as part of the effort to get females involved in ICT.
The minister said additionally, nine districts in Western North and Prestea Huni Valley have been asked to present 1,000 girls to be trained in basic computer skills, fundamentals of programming, Scratch, and HTML.
“The Ministry has completed the training of the first batch of 500 girls. The training of the second batch of 500 girls will commence tomorrow, Monday, 6th September to Saturday, 11th September, 2021. The Mentorship and Climax of the event will be held on Wednesday, 15th September, 2021 at Sefwi Wiawso under the global theme ‘Connected Girls, Creating Brighter Futures’,” she said.
By Ernest Kofi Adu