Management of Vodafone Ghana has started registration of customers SIM cards under a nation-wide programme following a National Communications Authority (NCA) directive to all mobile operators in the country to register all new SIM cards to be purchased effective July 1, 2010.
A statement issued in Accra on Tuesday and signed by Mr Gideon Asare Sackitey, Media Relations Consultant, Vodafone Ghana said "From July 1, 2010 all new Vodafone SIM card holders have the opportunity to reach out to any of the Vodafone registration centres, provide their personal details backed by an official national identity document to the service provider and be
registered before they can make calls with the new SIM".
It said "Existing customers have up to a year to get their SIM cards registered".
The statement said for many mobile phone users, the exercise would put to an end a wide range of malefactors who had ruthlessly exploited the relative obscurity and anonymity of mobile phones to bring untold fear, confusion and mental anguish to law-abiding citizens.
"For Vodafone, it is an opportunity to get to know our customers much more closely," it added.
According to the NCA and Ministry of Communications, the SIM card registration aims to safeguard the public against a spate of insecurity, including terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering, extortion, hate
messages and incitement.
In an interview, Mr Ekow Blankson, Trade Marketing Manager of Vodafone, said the exercise was going on smoothly, stressing that "people usually spend less than five minutes with a registration officer".
He said Vodafone had put out 2,000 trained persons nation-wide to implement the registration exercise.
Mr Blankson noted that these people would help register persons who were unable to reach their retail shops or the mounted registration centres.
"Additionally, we are conducting massive educational campaigns to heighten the consciousness of customers and Ghanaians in general about the need to register their SIM cards and ensure that their details are
adequately protected," he said.
He explained that the exercise by Vodafone had an added advantage whereby customers could pre-register their SMS before they come to a
registration officer.
"What this means is that customers can register through the SMS before coming to the centre for validation by the registration assistant. Besides, 600 Vodafone staffs have been trained to register their friends and relatives as a means of increasing the coverage of registration within the 31-day period," Mr Blankson said.
In an interview at the centres, the customers called for more registration assistants to ensure faster service delivery.
However, some of them complained about the effects of the use of fake identity cards by certain unscrupulous persons and called on the
telecommunication companies to be alert to such machinations.
Others were of the opinion that without a properly designated house numbering and national ID system, it would be difficult to trace people.