Very
soon stolen mobile phones may immediately be rendered unusable because
the government has begun the processes to establish a registry for
smartphones in the country.
Joy
Business understands that the Communication Ministry is setting up the
Central Equipment Identity Registry to track the unique International
Mobile Equipment Identity Number of all smartphones in the country.
Once you register the phone, it will be possible to render it unusable when someone steals it.
The Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, explained that the proposal is awaiting Cabinet’s approval before a possible deployment by the end of this year.
“But
for those who slip in the phones through unauthorised routes, or
somebody is coming [to Ghana from abroad] and they pack it in their
luggage, and so it is introduced into the country without the knowledge
of our port authority…it is those devices that we are seeking to rope
into the network,” she explained.
Phone theft is common around the world, and the feeling of losing your mobile phone with no hope of finding is often devastating.
Usually,
it is not the loss of the device that frustrates but also because of
the loss of important contacts, bank details, saved documents.
Smartphone owners are victims of phone theft, and 68% of those victims are unable to ever recover their device after the theft occurred. This is a global issue that is bound to keep growing.
Studies show that 10% of victims do not make any effort to find their phones because they do not know where to start.
Ghana’s
mobile phone subscription is expected to hit about 40 million in the
next two years, according to the Jumia Annual Mobile Report 2018.
With such a growth rate, it is projected that Ghana’s mobile penetration is going to hit above 130% by 2020.
The
report said factors that influenced this growth is the rapid interest
in social media, a general drop in smartphone prices, availability of
easy payment platforms and the growth in e-commerce and online retail
platforms.
The report launched by E-commerce Company Jumia, also revealed that Ghana is one of Africa’s largest mobile markets, with about 34.57 million subscribers and a penetration rate of 119%.
Source: Myjoyonline.com
