Telecommunications companies in Ghana have deactivated about 9 million unregistered SIM cards.
This complies with a National Communications Authority (NCA) directive.
Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the minister of communications, announced that the reregistration of all mobile SIM cards will begin on October 1, 2021.
Due to difficulties faced by SIM card users, the exercise was repeatedly extended from the initial six-month projection.
However, the final deadline expired yesterday, May 31.
Users can re-register their SIM cards even though they won’t have access to features like phone calls, according to Dr. Ken Ashigbey, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, in an interview with journalists.
“Those who have not fully registered their SIM cards will be blocked and as we speak, the numbers of those that will be blocked are about 9 million and then if you consider those on mobile money that will be blocked, they are about 7.4 million, and they will not have access to their mobile money. So on the GSM side, you will not be able to make a call, you will not be able to receive a call, send a text, and also not be able to use data services.”
He further stated that due to their failure to register their SIMs, the 7.4 million subscribers would not have access to their accounts. He did promise that the network operators would protect the money on SIM cards.
For the 7.4 million subscribers who have more than GHC 200 million in their wallets when they are barred, they will have the chance if they register, they will get their numbers back to have access to their funds and historical records back.
