“No calls day” in Ghana: how effective was it ?

A section of Ghanaians declared Tuesday, February 8 as "no calls day" across the country.

The Concerned Mobile Network Subscribers, say this is in protest of the government’s ongoing SIM card re-registration.

The group has called on the citizenry not to make or receive phone calls today, as a sign of registering their displeasure.

The group, which includes former Member of Parliament Ras Mubarak, journalists Samson Lardy Anyenini and Manasseh Azure Awuni, argued in a statement that no law in Ghana requires Ghanaian mobile network subscribers to “re-register” their SIM cards.

In the group’s view, any attempt to impose this on subscribers or block their lines would amount to an infringement of their property rights.

The group is demanding that the National Communications Authority (NCA) withdraw its directive for mobile network customers to re-register their SIM cards by 31 March 2022.

They noted that when the appropriate legal framework is in place, a re-registration exercise can be done without having subscribers spend productive hours and several days in long queues in the midst of a ravaging COVID-19 pandemic.

The re-registration of mobile SIM cards in Ghana started on, Friday, October 1, 2021, and is expected to end in the next two months.

According to the government, the registration is aimed at cleansing the country’s cyberspace of fraudsters, monitor and tracking down persons who use their phones for criminal activities.