The ongoing SIM deactivation would not affect anyone who have not yet received their Ghana Cards, according to the National Communications Authority (NCA).
According to a statement made on Wednesday by the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunication, some services would be cut off for users who did not finish the biometric registration step.
Voice, data (mobile, phones, mifis, and other data-providing devices), SMS (incoming and outgoing), USSD, mobile money services, and emergency services are among the services that will be blocked.
However, Nana Defie Badu, the NCA’s Director for Consumer & Corporate Affairs, stated that those who have not yet received their Ghana Cards will be excused.
“For those who did not have their Ghana cards and have not been able to register, those people will be exempt from any punitive measures pending the NIA giving them their Ghana card,” she disclosed on JoyNews on Thursday.
She continued by saying that the reason the NCA had been established was to assist in addressing the general public’s worries regarding their incapacity to register SIM cards.
“We acknowledge that there are some people who actually did the stage where they actually linked the sim to the Ghana card but unfortunately, after doing that their Ghana card were either lost, damaged or through no fault of theirs, they could not proceed to do stage two.
“So, for these people, we have actually asked that they should engage the NCA by calling our toll-free number. After we do an investigation and verify the issue, these people will also be put on the exclusion list pending them getting their Ghana cards reissued to them,” she told the host.
Meanwhile, AirtelTigo has announced that all SIM cards that are not fully registered on its network as of November 30 2022, will be blocked from accessing all services.
Customers who have successfully linked their SIM cards to their Ghana Cards but have not undergone biometric capture will effectively have all partially registered SIM cards blocked from making and receiving calls, accessing the internet and mobile money services, sending and receiving SMS, and other services.