Ghana’s Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has announced that the exercise to re-register SIM cards could now be accessed through a self-service application.
According to her, the mobile application will be available in the coming week on either Android or IOS platforms.
Speaking at the Minister’s Press Briefing on Sunday, July 31, the minister said the SIM registration via the app will however attract a charge of GH¢5.
“The SIM Registration App will be available for download on both android and IOS this week barring any unforeseen circumstances. Each registration via the app will be subject to a 5-cedi surcharge.”
“Non-resident Ghanaians who do not have the Ghana Card can use their passports to complete the process but will be required to update their details with the Ghana Card once they acquire it. They have up to December 2022 to do so. I urge them to comply with these directives and to contact the NCA if they have any peculiar challenges,” the minister added.
Meanwhile, the Communications Minister has announced an extension to the SIM registration exercise to September 30, 2022.
She explained the extension had become necessary owing to the teething challenges for registrants who are yet to be issued or acquire their national identification cards.
“Upon consultation, Government has decided to grant a final conditional extension. The programme will be extended to September 30 to end on the anniversary of its commencement, that will give us one full year of SIM re-registration,” the minister stated.
“It will be reviewed at the end of this month [July] and any SIM that has not been fully registered by the end of August will be barred from certain services including voice and data. It will also be more expensive to use unregistered SIMs,” she added.
However, the full range of punitive measures, the minister noted, will be announced at another press briefing which will be held in September this year.
