Some Qwikloan customers who haven’t paid are waiting for their SIM to be blocked – Sam George

Ningo Prampram’s member of parliament, Samuel Nartey George, claims that the decision to ban unregistered SIM cards in Ghana will deter investors from putting money into the country’s telecom industry.

Some Qwikloan clients, he claimed, who have not yet paid off their debt, have chosen not to do so and are waiting for their SIM to be blocked.

According to him, if a businessman sees this scenario, he or she is likely to be reluctant to engage in the industry for fear that, one day, government policy will force him to lose all of his capital assets.

Sam George said, “You have Qwikloan clients who have taken facilities and people are holding back and not wanting to pay, they are saying okay, if you want to deactivate my SIM, let’s deactivate it.” Sam George was speaking on the Key Points on TV3 on Saturday, July 30.

“The Qwikloan, at times, has put food on the table of families, you can’t underestimate the value of this. Right now, industry players are going to be scared. How do I put in money into an industry like OTT [Operate Over the Internet] when a policy directive one day could cost me millions or billions of dollars. These are the kind of policy incoherence we need to talk about.”

He further said the decision by the government not to extend the deadline for the SIM reregistration is mere talk.

In his view, the deadline will be extended.

The Minister of Communications and Digitalization, Madam Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, served notice that the deadline remains Today Sunday, July 31.

It was earlier pushed forward from 31st March to 31st July.