SIM re-registration begins next month – Communications Minister
Minister for Communication and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu, has disclosed that the much awaited re-registration of SIM cards will commence next month – October 2021 – across the country.
Making the disclosure at a press briefing at the Ministry of Information on Sunday, the Minister noted that, the National Identity Card – Ghana Card – shall solely be used as the identification document for the re-registration of SIM cards by the Ghanaian citizenry as well as foreign residents.
“Only the national ID card shall be used for the re-registration of SIM cards by citizens, foreign residents, and for foreigners staying in Ghana for more than 90 days. For those staying in Ghana for less than 90 days, a valid passport or other travel documents will be required,” averred the Minister.
According to the Minister, all previous attempts to embark on the re-registration of SIM cards in the country failed due to the lack of a verifiable identification document.
This, she said, has led to the influx of pre-registered SIM cards due to the inability of the government to track and trace people who commit crimes with SIM cards.
“The prevalence of fake IDs and non-existence of verification of IDs also led to unscrupulous individuals procuring hundreds of SIM cards for SIM boxing leading to loss of revenue to the state and network operators. The Ghana Card provides the basis for a successful SIM registration exercise this time around,” she added.
Some benefits to be derived from the re-registration of the SIM Card the Minister noted include reducing fraudulent and criminal activities, helping authorities ascertain the accurate number of valid SIM Cards on networks, enable network operators to build demographics of customers as well as help them develop products and services to suit the various groupings.
The re-registration of SIM Cards by the Ministry is in accordance with the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) for registration regulations of the L I. 2006 which requires network operators to activate a SIM only after the subscriber registers it as an individual or a corporate body.
The re-registration exercise was initially scheduled to take place in March 2020 but was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
