The Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation has revealed that effective October 31, 2022, all unregistered SIM cards will be blocked from receiving data and SMS services, as well as making or receiving calls.
In a statement sighted by The Independent Ghana, the ministry headed by its minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, clarified that the new deadline is not an extension, but a temporary moratorium to enable persons that have linked their Ghana Cards to the SIM cards to complete the registration process.
“This is not an extension of the deadline but a temporary moratorium to encourage these individuals to complete the process. If they have any peculiar challenges, they should contact the NCA. These good people have the Ghana card, have started the process and will be encouraged to complete it with this gentle reminder. All other unregistered SIMs will also be blocked progressively,” part of the statement read.
However, the Ministry stressed that “All SIM Cards that have been linked to Ghana Cards (i.e. completed Stage 1 registration), but have not completed their Stage 2 registration will be blocked from the end of October.”
Unregistered SIM cards were supposed to have been blocked by October 1 after the July 31st deadline was shifted to September 30th 2022.
Meanwhile, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has cautioned persons with more than the 10 SIMs to delink the excess numbers as it exceeds the threshold.
She warned that the system will identify and block the excess SIM cards. Still on some impermissible acts, the Minister said SIM card vendors selling pre-registered SIMs could spend 5 years in prison if caught and found guilty.
On data-only SIMs, the minister added that they have till the end of November 30 to complete the reregistration exercise.
“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 to complete registration.
“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 offence 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,” the statement continued.
According to data put out by the minister, a total of 18,930,664 SIM Cards have been fully registered while 28,959,006 SIM Cards have been linked to Ghana Cards – representing 67.28% of the 42,749,662 total SIM cards issued nationally.
This is between 1st October 2021 and 4th October 2022.