Over to you, Mr. Totobi Quakyi

The Business and Financial Times quoted the Minister for Communication, Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, in its yesterday edition, calling on the National Communication Authority (NCA), which is headed by Mr. Kofi Totobi Quakyi, a former government official, to begin the process to register SIM cards to curb phone-related crimes in the country.

There is the need to collaborate with the National Security to register all SIM cards to address security concerns, and to end the culture of anonymous ownership of chips. Petty crimes are currently rife as a result of the rapidly increasing number of mobile phones, where people buy SIM cards and use them to send threatening or death messages to other persons, and then dump the card. This causes a lot of pain to people unnecessarily, the B&FT quoted the Minister as saying.

The Chronicle is happy that at long last a Minister of State has seen the need to register mobile phone SIM cards in this country. We have consistently used this medium in the past to espouse this idea, but all our calls have fallen on deaf ears. Already, the NCA has come out to state that mobile phone penetration in Ghana is well over 52% - which means a lot of people now have access to mobile phones in this country.

Though this is a good development for the country, since it will promote business and commerce, it also has its negative tendencies that seem to outweigh the positives. Criminals appear to have taken advantage of the situation, with innocent people being threatened daily with death text messages. Others are also using it to destroy the reputation of prominent people in our society.

The worst aspect of it is the fact that these criminals use mobile phones to commit crimes such as armed robbery and financial fraud, among others. It is as a result of what we have enumerated above, which is making us call on the authorities to register SIM cards to help stem its use for criminal acts. Now that the Minister himself has joined the chorus, we hope Mr. Kofi Totobi Quakyi's NCA will show much interest in the issue and help curb such crimes in the country.

As a government official, who once served as Minister of Information and National Security respectively, Mr. Totobi Quakyi is better abreast with the issue than the current Minister of Communication, and would therefore, make sure that the aim of registering all SIM card holders would be achieved.

The times where one can walk to any corner of the street to buy a SIM card and start using it without registering it, should be consigned to the dustbin.