SIM card re-registration exercise extended to September 30
Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has said the SIM Card re-registration exercise has been extended to 30 September 2022.
Speaking at the Minister’s Press Briefing in Accra on Sunday, July 31, 2022, Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said, “The statistics indicate that there was a 90% sim registration as soon as the first deadline was extended on 21st March 2022. Until a week ago, there were no queues at any registration centre. People started to register when they realised that the deadline was imminent after going to sleep when it was extended. After 50% of those who have completed the first phase of the process have not concluded the second stage. They have linked their sims to the Ghana Card and so that cannot be attributed to Ghana Card challenges.”
“I have reluctantly granted it to be extended to 30th September to end on the anniversary of its commencement. That will give us one full year of SIM registration,” she said after stating the reasons at a press conference in Accra on Sunday.
“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 service,” she added.
Meanwhile, leading research and public policy think tank, CUTS International, Accra has urged the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation to extend the mobile SIM Card registration deadline to the end of the year as the majority of Ghanaians have logistical challenges in obtaining NIA card and using the same to register their sim.
Speaking to a cross section of press in Accra on Monday, the West African Regional Director for CUTS International, Mr Appiah Kusi Adomako said “whilst we understand the rationale behind the mandatory SIM card registration and the implication of unregistered SIM cards on crime prevention and detection as well on government domestic revenue mobilisation measures, extending the deadline to the end of the year would ensure that those who have not registered would be able to do so. Again, we are also not unmindful that not everyone would get registered should it be extended to the end of the year but those who would take advantage of the extension to register would outnumber those who would not register”
“As a consumer protection organization, we have received numerous concerns from consumers about the difficulty they go through in acquiring the Ghana Card to enable them to register their sim cards. Some registered during the mass registration exercise in 2019 but haven’t received their cards up to date. A release from the NIA indicated that about 800,000 Ghanaians are yet to receive or pick up their printed cards as of 21st July, 2022. Others have misplaced their cards, whilst others have errors on the spelling of their names, first-time registrants among others,” he added.
Mr Adomako said, “some people have had to abandon their work, wake up at dawn to join long queue at the NIA registration offices but are unsuccessful, extending the deadline will give them ample time to get the Ghana cards and register their sim cards”.
He revealed that Telcos risk losing huge volume of revenue from their customers should the deadline not be extended. Some have taken microloans from mobile operators and disabling their sim card would create a substantial loss to the industry players.
“Government on the other hand also risk losing huge amount of revenue from electronic transactions (e-levy) from customers should the deadline stay as it is,” he opined.
As a way to compel those who have not registered their sim cards to register, perhaps, the Ministry of Communications can adopt a phased limitations on sim card starting from 1st September 2022.
This could include limiting the amount of mobile money that an unregistered sim can send and or receive to a maximum of GHC 100.00 per day and maximum internet bundle to say 100MB per day.
