Following a mandate from the National Communications Authority (NCA), telecommunications companies in Ghana have taken measures to deactivate around 9 million unregistered SIM cards.
Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Minister of Communications, initially announced the re-registration procedure for all mobile SIM cards on October 1, 2021.
The re-registration procedure, which was supposed to last six months, was delayed many times due to problems encountered by SIM card users.
The last date for re-registration, however, was May 31.
According to Dr Ken Ashigbey, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, while customers can still re-register their SIM cards, certain functionalities such as phone calls would be unavailable throughout the process.
Approximately 9 million consumers will be unable to make or receive calls, send text messages, or utilise data services because they have not completed the entire registration of their SIM cards.
Approximately 7.4 million users who have not registered their SIM cards for mobile money services will also lose access to their accounts. Dr. Ashigbey assured consumers that the monies stored on these SIM cards would be protected.
These customers will recover access to their mobile money accounts, including their stored monies and previous transaction logs, assuring the protection of their monetary assets if they register their SIM cards.
