This Friday, September 30, 2022, marks the expiration of the extended deadline for SIM card re-registration.
The Communications and Digitalization Ministry has already created a list of sanctions against people who will miss the deadline, some of which started to take effect on September 5.
If the subscribers do not re-register the cards within six months of the deactivation, the subscribers’ SIM cards may be deactivated and their numbers may be allocated to someone else.
The rules are intended to assist law enforcement authorities in tracking down offenders who use phones for illegal purposes, identifying SIM card owners, and preventing phone theft, hate texting, mobile fraud, and SIM box fraud.
In order to employ value-added services like mobile banking, mobile money, and electronic payment systems, they must also assist in identifying customers.
Not all Ghanaians, however, have been able to obtain their Ghana Cards in order to complete the re-registration.
Some stakeholders claim that the action violates Ghanaians’ constitutional rights.
Numerous customers gathered in large numbers at the telecom companies’ locations to voice concern over the government’s retaliatory measures.
Your top-ups will disappear much faster than for those who are using registered sims – Ursula Owusu warns
Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, Hon. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful is relentless in her quest to have all Ghanaians register their sim cards with the Ghana Card.
The Minister of Communications, Ursula Owusu announced the new extension date during a press briefing held today, Sunday, July 31, 2022. This followed after over 6 million Ghanaians failed to meet the initial deadline of the registration.
She told the press, “The programme will be extended to 30 September to end the anniversary of its commencement which will give us a full year. Any sim that has not been registered by end of August will be barred from receiving services.”
The Ghana Card has become an even more important document; it identifies nationality, registers businesses, helps citizens travel, for banking etc.
According to available data, there are close to 20 million active SIM cards in Ghana. Meanwhile, the National Identification Authority intimated that only about 15 million people have their Ghana Cards.
There is a backlog of nearly 2 million people who do not yet have their Ghana Cards and are unable to register SIM cards in their names.
Speaking in a recent interview, the Minister of Communications and Digitalisation has issued another stern warning to those who have tagged themselves as ‘Stubborn Academy’ unwilling to register their sim.
Ursula in an interview on Asaase Radio has indicated that by the end of August, people who have not registered their sim cards will find it very expensive to use an unregistered sim card.
She said their data and airtime will run out easily and they will be limited on the services they enjoy currently.
“If by the end of August they haven’t registered their sims, they will find that it’s more expensive to use an unregistered sim than it is to use a registered one and they will begin to feel the pinch.
Akin to what you were suggesting there will be some services that they can’t access on their devices and their top-ups will disappear much faster than for those who are using registered sims and a few other measures that will be announced in due course.
They can keep being stubborn,” she said on Asaase Radio in Accra.
