Operators registering clients on mobile phones

Koforidua, June 28, GNA - The New Juaben Municipal Director of the Statistical Service, Mr Abakah Ansah, has expressed worry that operators of some communication networks were registering their customers on mobile phone, to meet the June 30th deadline.

He said the strategy adopted by these networks if not checked, would allow people to use other people's identity cards to register since on th= e phone, pictures could not be obtained to cross check information, adding that unscrupulous persons could use other people's data for their advanta= ge. Mr Abakah Ansah in an interview with GNA in Koforidua, called on the National Communications Authority (NCA) to ensure that the right procedures were used in the registration exercise to ensure that the objective of identifying people with their numbers was realised. He observed that agents contracted by the networks to undertake the registration on phone were not using fixed telephone lines that could be traced but were using personal phones, explaining that it would be difficul= t to determine their authenticity

The GNA observed that with a few days for the SIM card registration exercise to end, operators of communication networks were registering clients through mobile phones to prevent them from losing their mobile phon= e numbers by the end of June, as the NCA had stated. Agents of the various networks have been calling their clients, who di= d not register, on phone, for information on national identity documents such as the passport, driving licence, National Health Insurance Scheme card and Voter's ID card, to enable them to register them without their pictures. Some mobile phone users, who spoke to the GNA on condition of anonymity, indicated that people called them to ask for their information from any of the national identity documents, to register their SIM on phone but they were sceptical and refused to provide the information. Others said that they were registered through the same process on the phone, and they were wondering how the operators could identify them since they did not use their pictures.