Ursula is not 'thinking' - Sam George fumes at the stubbornness of minister

The Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, Sam Nartey George, has said that the Minister of Communications and Digitalization, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, is not ‘thinking’ in her obstinacy that has contributed to the delay in linking all SIM cards in the country to the Ghana Card.

The MP explained that it is worrying that

Read full article.the minister assumes that the delay in the completion of the national exercise is rather due to the refusal of Ghanaians to line up at the offices of telcos in the country to go through the process.

Speaking on Tuesday, August 2, 2022, edition of Good Morning Ghana and monitored by GhanaWeb, the outspoken MP stated that there are too many loopholes in the system that could have been solved if Ursula Owusu-Ekuful listened to technical advice.

“The minister assumes, in her press statement, that it is just people being Ghanaians and don’t want to go and queue, that’s not the reality. You see, you could do the stage one registration today, using the short code, but when you are done with that, you have to do stage two of going to the telco offices. You need to go with your Ghana Card. If you misplace your Ghana Card after you’ve done with stage one, you cannot continue with stage two.

“And so, what then happens is that you then have to go and join the numbers that are queuing up at El-Wak and at the various NIA offices to do this. We could have done this in a tidier manner if the minister had listened to the technical advice available to her; from her own agency, the NCA, if she had engaged with stakeholders and listened to what the stakeholders, the Chamber of Telecoms, was telling her.

“But we have a minister who thinks that she’s high and mighty. Nothing you say to her shifts her position until we run into a ditch,” he said.

Sam Nartey George further explained that there are examples of how some state institutions have successfully linked their clientele to the NIA database without having them queue up at their various offices.

“… SSNIT has done a linkage of SSNIT contributors to the NIA database. They did not ask SSNIT contributors to come to SSNIT offices and come and do biometrics for verification of their cards. DVLA did not ask drivers to come to their offices with their licenses to be linked to the Ghana Card: they all did it by the use of a short code,” he added.

He also wondered why it has to take more strenuous processes for the telcos in the country to link the Ghana Cards of their customers when the government could have employed easier approaches.

“So, why is it that when it comes to the telcos, we can’t do the same thing? This directive should have gone to the operators, not to the customers… because the minister is not thinking. Simple. Because the NIA is a creation of law. The NIA by law is set up as an institution to provide a service in continuity – no deadlines,” he added.

Meanwhile, GhanaWeb is accepting nominations for the prestigious GhanaWeb Excellence Awards – Youth Edition. Click here to nominate.

EA/BOG