The last couple of years have seen a number of African countries pushing citizens to register their sim cards.
In Ghana, the re-registration started on October 1, 2021 but delays saw it extended to May 2023.
The country’s National Communications Authority (NCA) has now confirmed that the SIM registration exercise will finally come to an end on 31 May.
NCA Director General Joe Anokye said there are approximately 11 million active but unregistered SIMs which will be deactivated from networks after May 31, 2023. The 11 million SIMs include subscribers who were exempted from the current exercise. These include diplomats, refugees, and Ghanaians on official duties outside the country. Others include subscribers who have registered some of their SIMs, people with Ghana Cards who have refused to register, as well as others without Ghana cards.
According to Mr. Anokye, at the inception of the SIM registration exercise on October 1, 2021, there were 42,749,709 active SIMs registered with various forms of identification, such as the NHIA card, passport, driver’s licence, etc used for registration. However, a lot of these IDs were not verified at the time they were being used to register the SIMs. He also indicated that out of the 36,571,257 SIMs registered as at 25th April, 2023, 25,448,962 SIMs have completed both Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the SIM registration exercise using the Ghana Card, and have been fully registered and stored in the central SIM database.
He added that the Authority is working with mobile network operators to deploy shortcode *402*1# for subscribers to check the details linked to their Ghana Cards. “Effective May 1, 2023, subscribers will be able to use the shortcode to check how many SIMs are linked to their Ghana Cards and will also be able to contact the customer care centres of their MNO to delink unwanted numbers”, Mr. Anokye said.
Mr. Anokye explained that the SIM Registration exercise was necessary for building trust and confidence in the use of telecommunications, financial, and other essential services, as a reliable SIM register would aid security and law enforcement activities, protect Ghana’s common peace, and promote socio-economic development. Therefore, he urged stakeholders, including the media, to support the exercise’s success.
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