Progressive blocking of 23.8m SIM cards announced

Some 23.8 million (23,818,998) SIM Cards which are not registered at all or not fully registered are to be blocked.

10m completed only stage 1 registration

This includes almost 10 million people who have linked their SIM Cards to their Ghana Cards (i.e. completed Stage 1 registration) but have not completed their Stage 2 registration.

A statement signed by Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful said there is no excuse for this since these individuals have their Ghana Cards, have started the process and had ample opportunity to fully register their SIM Cards, including through the use of the self-registration app which is the first of its kind in the world.

28.9m did only stage 1 registration

Out of the 42.7 million (42,749,662) total SIM cards issued some 28.9 million (28,959,006) SIM Cards have been linked to Ghana Cards (Stage 1 registration); representing 67.28%

18.9m SIM cards fully registered

Some 18.9 million (18,930,664) SIM Cards have been fully registered (Completed both Stages 1 and 2) – representing 44.28% of the total SIM cards issued.  This equates to 69.64% of all Stage 1 registrations.

13.7m unique Counts of Ghana Cards used

Also, 13.7 13,720,687 unique Counts of Ghana Cards have been used so far for the registration exercise.

Mrs Owusu-Ekuful directed that all SIM Cards that have been linked to Ghana Cards (i.e. completed Stage 1 registration), but have not completed their Stage 2 registration will be blocked from the end of October.

She explained that this is not an extension of the deadline but a temporary moratorium to encourage these individuals to complete the process.

“If they have any peculiar challenges, they should contact the NCA. “These good people have the Ghana card, have started the process and will be encouraged to complete it with this gentle reminder.

“All other unregistered SIMs will also be blocked progressively,” she explained.

According to her, the National Communications Authority (NCA) is in discussions with the National Identification Authority (NIA) on registration of amputees and other categories of persons and will make an announcement shortly on arrangements made to accommodate them.

He said the provision made earlier for SIMs active outside Ghana and diplomats still stands

Data-only SIMs given up to November

She noted that all data-only SIMs including those issued by Surfline, Busy Internet, Telesol, and any institution such as ECG, have up to the end of November to complete registration.

10 SIM Cards registered for personal use flagged

The minister said some people have registered more than 10 SIM Cards for personal use and the database has identified it and will clean it up.

He tasked such persons to as a matter of urgency, delink the unwanted SIM Cards immediately because any excess SIM Cards over the individual limit of 10 SIMs per person will be removed from the database and blocked which will also address issues of pre-registered SIMS.

She said the NCA has been directed to conduct mystery shopping and enforce the law against those miscreants and persons found guilty could be imprisoned for up to five years.

Mrs Owusu-Ekuful stated that the government is fully committed to ensuring that the country has a safe digital ecosystem underpinning our collective cybersecurity.

She added that a successful SIM Card registration exercise is an essential part of this goal and appealed to all to put the national interest first and do the right thing for this country.

Regulation 1(b) of the Subscriber Identity Module Registration Regulations, 2011 (L.I 2006) states that “A network operator or service provider shall not activate a Subscriber Identity Module for a subscriber unless the subscriber complies with the directives given by the Authority under the Act and the National Communications Authority Act, 2008, (Act 769) on the registration of Subscriber Identity Module.”

This imposes a legal obligation on all Network Operators to activate only SIMs registered in the manner prescribed by the NCA on their network.

Any SIM which is not duly registered in accordance with NCA directives cannot be activated on any network in Ghana.

The Authority, NCA, therefore, has the power to issue directives detailing the entire procedure for SIM registration and to impose penalties/sanctions for noncompliance with the Directives.