The Minister for Communications and Digitalisation, Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has announced that the nationwide exercise to re-register SIM cards has been extended to September 30, 2022.
Speaking at the Minister’s press briefing in Accra on the topic: ‘Connectivity and Access in a secured environment’, the Minister indicated that she has “very reluctantly decided to grant a final conditional extension” upon consultation with the industry.
According to the Communications Minister, the extension followed a consultation with the industry after the exercise was faced with some challenges.
“The program will be extended to 30th September to end on the anniversary of its commencement. That will give us one full year of SIM registration. It will be reviewed at the end of this month and any SIM that has not been fully registered by the end of August will be barred from receiving certain services including voice and data services.
“It will also be more expensive to use unregistered SIMs. The full range of punitive measures will be announced at another press briefing in September. Kindly do not blame your service provider when you suffer that fate due to your own …”
Hon. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful
The Minister noted that despite the challenges with the Ghana Card – long queues among others – many Ghanaians failed to register their SIMs after the deadline was extended. She iterated that this extension of the deadline is the final one.
“The statistics indicate that there was a 90% drop in SIM reregistration, as soon as the first deadline was extended on 21st March. Until a week ago, there were no cues, people started going to register when they realized that deadline was imminent after going to sleep.
“The mobile network operators, NCA, and the NIA have all engaged additional staff, procured the necessary logistics and are incurring significant expenses to conduct this exercise successfully, any extension of the process increases their cost”.
Hon. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful
About 8 million people risks losing their SIMs
The extension by the Minister followed agitations by some civil society organizations and many Ghanaians who besieged telecommunication outlets across the country in a desperate attempt to register their SIM cards ahead of the second deadline on Sunday, July 31.
Available data showed that about 7.9m Ghanaians were expected to lose SIM cards going by today’s deadline. According to data contained in the 2021 Population and Housing Census, there are 19.9 million Ghanaians who are 15 years and older.
Out of this, only 15.7 million of them have been able to obtain their Ghana Card per the information given by the Finance Minister during the presentation of the 2022 mid-year budget review.
Of the 19.9 million, just 12 million, according to the Minister of Communications and Digitalization, have been able to fully register their SIM cards.
People called on the government and the Communications Ministry to extend the deadline of the SIM card re-registration exercise.
Meanwhile, the Communications Minister has announced that a self sim registration app will be launched next week to help people register in the comfort of their homes.
However, she warned “Ghanaians who have joined the NDC in calling my bluff regarding the blocking of SIMs after the registration deadline” to “listen to them at your own peril”.
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