SIM card deactivation causes concern among telecom and mobile money wallet operators
The scheduled mass deactivation of SIM cards in Ghana on April 17, 2023 has raised concerns among telecom and mobile money wallet operators, who fear that millions of mobile money wallets will be unjustifiably churned as a result of the directive.
The National Communications Authority (NCA) directed telcos and ISPs to comply with the following measures: first, to delink all SIMs that have been disconnected in compliance with the NCA’s March 31 deadline from their SIM registration databases; second, to indicate in writing to the NCA by April 18 the total number of SIMs disconnected; and third, to delink, deactivate and remove all SIMs registered after the limit of ten from their SIM registration databases.
These measures contravene the dormancy provisions in Section 33 of the Payment Systems & Services Act 2019, ACT 987, which requires a 2-year dormancy for inactive mobile money accounts to be churned. Consequently, mobile money operators have called on the Bank of Ghana, under whose purview ACT 987 exists, to intervene and ensure that provisions of the Act are upheld.
However, the NCA appears to be unmoved by these concerns, citing the need to address ongoing fraudulent SIM registration. Operators have reportedly attempted to discuss the implications of the directive with the NCA, but to no avail. In addition, the Bank of Ghana, which was not consulted on the potential impact of the directive on mobile money, has yet to comment on the matter.
It is unclear whether the mass deactivation of SIM cards will be effective in solving fraudulent SIM registration, which is enabled by the failings of the NCA itself. The NCA SIM registration platform lacks a verification component, rendering data collected by the NCA incompatible with the National Identification Authority’s database and unable to be used for verification purposes.
The absence of a verification platform also means that fraudulent SIM registrations can only be flagged when the owner of the Ghana Card linked to that SIM makes a complaint, rendering the NCA’s efforts to combat fraud reactive rather than proactive.
As a preventive or remedial measure, the NCA has promised to release a universal short code for Ghanaians to check regularly how many SIM cards are linked to their Ghana Card. However, the second set of biodata collected by the NCA is not playing any role whatsoever in the new SIM register being compiled, making the stage two of the SIM registration process unnecessary. This raises questions about why the NCA is collecting this data and what purpose it serves.
This matter is of interest to National Security, as several state and private institutions are verifying IDs and biodata against the National Identification Authority’s database, while the NCA appears to be building another national ID database outside of the NIA’s database. Given these concerns, it is essential that the Bank of Ghana and the NCA work together to ensure that the interests of mobile money operators and the public are protected.
