Ghana’s Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation is not extending the September 30, 2022 deadline.
Rather, it is giving a temporary moratorium to encourage individuals to complete the process.
According to the ministry, there are almost 10 million people who have already done Stage 1 of the registration by linking their cards to the Ghana Card, but are yet to go through Stage 2.
For SIM cards that have been linked to Ghana Cards but are yet to complete stage 2 of the process, that is verify it with the users’ biometrics, the total figure is 28,959,006 and involving almost 10 million users.
SIM Card users who have peculiar challenges, are to contact the National Communications Authority (NCA) to have their challenges resolved, the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation has indicated.
The reason is that, the users have the Ghana card, and have started the process of registration but have not been able to complete it and therefore are being encouraged to complete it.
Unregistered SIM cards
All other unregistered SIMs will also be blocked progressively at the end of October 2022, the Ministry of Communication and Digitalisation has stated in a statement.
“There is no excuse for this since these individuals have their Ghana Cards, have started the process and had ample opportunity to fully register their SIM Cards, including through the use of the self registration app which is the first of its kind in the world,” the Minister of Communication and Digitalisation, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful indicated in the statement.
“There may be some who are opposed to the SIM Card registration exercise for either ideological, philosophical, or political reasons. Let me just remind them that they may be exercising their right to opt out of this exercise but all actions have consequences. All unregistered SIMs will be deactivated,” she added.
What does the law say?
Regulation 1(b) of the Subscriber Identity Module Registration Regulations, 2011 (L.I 2006) states that:
This imposes a legal obligation on all Network Operators to activate ONLY SIMs registered in the manner prescribed by the NCA on their network, Mrs Owusu-Ekuful stated.
“Any SIM which is not duly registered in accordance with NCA directives cannot be activated on any network in Ghana. The Authority, NCA, therefore, has the power to issue DIRECTIVES detailing the entire procedure for SIM registration and to impose penalties/sanctions for non compliance with the Directives,” she added.
Those who still don’t have Ghana Cards
The Minister stated that “as a responsible government, we will ensure that they [NCA] enforce the law to the letter.
“We also acknowledge that some of our citizens have had difficulties obtaining Ghana Cards to enable them undertake their SIM registration, although 1.3 million Ghanaians have also been issued their Ghana cards but have not collected them. This is regrettable and we will continue to engage the National Identification Authority (NIA) to expedite the process.”
She said the NCA is in discussions with the NIA on registered amputees and other categories of persons and will make an announcement shortly on arrangements made to accommodate them. The provision made earlier for SIMs active outside Ghana and diplomats still stands.”
“All data-only SIMs including those issued by Surfline, Busy Internet, Telesol, and any institution such as ECG, have up to the end of November [2022] to complete registration.
More than 10 SIM card registrations for personal use
“Some people have registered more than ten (10) SIM Cards for personal use and the database has identified it and will clean it up.
“They should, as a matter of urgency, delink the unwanted SIM Cards immediately because any excess SIM Cards over the individual limit of 10 SIMs per person will be removed from the database and blocked.
“This will also address issues of pre-registered SIMS. Let me remind all SIM card vendors that it is an offense to pre-register and sell SIM cards.
“The NCA has been directed to conduct mystery shopping and enforce the law against those miscreants. If found guilty, they could be imprisoned for up to 5 years.”
