The National Communications Authority (NCA) has declared its intention to impose penalties on users who have not registered their SIM cards.
This new policy is set to go into effect on Monday, September 5, 2022.
Outgoing calls and data services for a consecutive batch of numbers would be stopped for two days weekly on a rotational basis, according to a statement signed by the Authority’s Director-General.
“MNOs [Mobile Network Operators] shall divide the unregistered SIMs into five batches for the purpose of implementing this punitive measure.
“These measures shall exclude blocking of SMS to give defaulting subscribers the opportunity to initiate registration if they so wish. Subscribers who fully register their SIM Cards within the period they have been blocked will only be unblocked by the MNOs after the 48 hours to avoid the MNOs tampering with their systems intermittently,” part of the statement read.
The Authority also requested that MNOs work with the Electricity Company of Ghana, Ghana Water, and other service providers to ensure that their data-only SIMs are properly registered.
The Director-General also asked the MNOs to modify their systems to allow non-resident Ghanaians to use passports until December 31, 2022.
“MNOs shall put disconnected SIM Cards in a holding category and current subscribers of these SIM Cards shall be given six (6) months to register their SIM cards, failing which these numbers will be churned by the MNOs.”
