Barely less than 72 hours to the deadline of the nationwide SIM card registration exercise, some telecommunication companies in Hohoe have decided to extend working hours to cater for those who will want to beat the July 31 deadline.
The Ministry of Communication and Digitalisation has set July 31, 2022, as the deadline for the registration exercise, an indication that all mobile subscribers who could not register their SIM cards could not use their handset.
A visit to some centres, where the SIM card registration were taking place for the MTN Ghana, AirtelTigo and Vodafone Ghana, saw scores of people in queues to get their registration done while the office of the National Identification Authority (NIA) also had queues for people who want to obtain their cards to enable them to register their SIMs.
Ms Mabel Tetteh, Assistant Supervisor, Hohoe Connect Store of the MTN Ghana, speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) disclosed that her outfit had seen scores of people over the past few weeks who wanted to register their SIM cards.
She said although it was possible that they could not register all the people who were there before the close of day, they had received a directive to extend the working hours through to the weekends.
Ms Tetteh said hitherto, they worked on Saturdays from 0800 to 1200 hours but because of the registration exercise, they would be working on Saturday and Sunday from 0900 to 1600 hours just to register people who were not successful during the week.
At the Pridam Investment Ghana Ltd, an AirtelTigo office, only few people were waiting to go through the registration process.
However, a staff member disclosed that although they do not work on weekends, they would open the office over this weekend to cater for subscribers who would need their services.
At the Hohoe Vodafone Ghana office, quite several people were in queues to register and the extension of working hours through to the weekends would also be carried out by the company.
Some subscribers who spoke to GNA called for the extension of the date to enable the network providers to have adequate time to register them.
Mr Godwin Ebitey, a subscriber said he had registered his personal SIM card for a long time but came to register additional cards he uses adding that it would be good news if government would extend the registration exercise.
Miss Olivia Xorse, a student of the Prof Binka School of Public Health, Hohoe noted that although she registered her SIM about three months ago, she could not access her registration status, hence came to the office for rectification.
She said there was a network issue and was asked to come back for the issue to be addressed, adding that she would not want to lose her phone number.
Master David Adedze, a student appealed to the Government for an extension of the deadline which would enable many subscribers to register their SIM cards.
GNA checks at the NIA District office, Hohoe revealed that although the total number of people who registered in July alone was not readily available, data showed that there was increase in people who registered for the Ghana card in the past two weeks.
Source: newsghana.com.gh