SIM re-registration deadline extended to September 30
The Ministry of Communications and Digitilization has indicated an extension in the deadline of the SIM card re-registration exercise to September 30, 2022.
The extension according to the Ministry , followed consultations with industry stakeholders.
”Upon consultation with the industry and in view of the challenges enumerated above, I have very reluctantly decided to grant a conditional extension. The programme will be extended to 30th September to end on the anniversary of its commencement ” , The Minister of Communications and Digitilization, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful disclosed this during a press briefing held today, Sunday, July 31, 2022.
“That will give us one full year of SIM registration. It will be reviewed at the end of this month and any SIM that has not been fully registered by the end of August will be barred from receiving certain services including voice and data services,” she said.
The SIM Registration begun on 1st October, 2021 for a six (6) month period and was to end on 31st March, 2022. but was extended to July 31 as the deadline for all persons to re-register their SIM cards with their Ghana Cards.
SIM cards of persons who fail to partake in the exercise before the deadline would have it deactivated.
The regulations are to help law enforcement agencies to identify SIM card owners, track criminals who use phones for illegal activities, curb phone theft, hate text messaging, mobile fraud activities, and SIM Box fraud.
Phone users are to re–register their SIM cards using the GhanaCard and biometrics but some persons are unable to access their Ghana cards to allow for a smooth SIM re-registration, while some users are reluctant to go through the process.
The National Identification Authority has indicated that 15,702,719 cards have been issued while 808,493 cards have been printed but not issued.
These challenges among others have resulted in the Ministry and government’s extension of the exercise to the end of September.