The Chamber of Telecommunications has guaranteed that all deactivated, unregistered Subscriber Identification Modules (SIM) can still be registered.
The Chamber said data on the deactivated SIM cards would be restored immediately the user completed the registration exercise using the Ghana Card and biometric data captured by the mobile operator.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Dr Kenneth Ashigbey, Chief Executive Officer, Chamber of Telecommunications, said at least three million unregistered SIM cards had been deactivated as of Thursday morning.
He said as of May 31, 2023 – the deadline for the SIM registration exercise – about nine million SIM cards had not been registered.
Dr Ashigbey said six million more unregistered SIM cards could be deactivated in the coming days.
He said users of the deactivated SIM cards could not make or receive calls, send or receive text messages, access internet services, and perform mobile money transactions.
However, the deactivated numbers could receive messages from their mobile operator and could also access the code for the registration of the SIM card – *404#.
“It is important that we all take advantage of this window and register our SIM cards now because we don’t know when the National Communications Authority (NCA) will close that window.
“The Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation, the NCA, and the Telcos are not interested in barring people’s numbers. It is to ensure that these fraudsters that are in the system are taken out,” Dr Ashigbey said.
The SIM card registration campaign started on October 1, 2021, and was due to end on March 31, 2022.
The National Identification Card, also known as the Ghana Card, is the only document that can be used to undertake the registration exercise.
However, due to some difficulties in the acquisition of the Ghana Card, the NCA extended the deadline for registration multiple times until May 31, 2023, which was communicated as the final deadline.
Dr Ashigbey said about 7.4 million mobile money accounts, holding an amount of GHc200 million have not been registered and thus will be deactivated.
He said monies on blocked accounts would be kept in a special account.
Dr Ashigbey said owners of restored mobile money accounts would be required to undergo a process to have monies restored in their wallets.
“If you do not have a Ghana Card, go to the National Identification Authority for the card. Once you get the Ghana card, dial the registration code, and get registered. Once you get registered, you will get your number back,” Dr Ashigbey said.