Communications Ministry directive: All unregistered SIM cards to be blocked Nov. 20 …other affected cards will be deactivated Nov. 30

 All SIM cards, also known as a Subscriber Identity Mod­ule which are yet to be fully registered by November 20 will be blocked from accessing data services.

Also, the affected SIM cards will be completely deactivated on November 30, the Ministry of Communication and Digitalisation has announced.

A statement signed and issued in Accra yesterday by the Minister of Communication and Digitalisa­tion, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful said, measures to accommodate those who genuinely do not have Ghana cards, would be announced when ongoing consultations have been completed.

Currently, it noted that, 30,011,082 have completed the first stage which involved the linking of Ghana Card to SIM Number.

The statement noted that so far, 20,892,970 subscribers, had completed the SIM card registra­tion which involved the linkage and biometric processes.

One key reason why some of those who have linked phone numbers to Ghana cards have been unable to complete the biometric capture of stage two, it said, was because they used other people’s cards to link their numbers.

“This includes vendors who used the cards of others without the knowledge or consent of the card owners. Their inability to complete phase two attests to the robustness of the authentication process designed into the SIM registration architecture.

It will flush out all fakes. You cannot use someone else’s Ghana card to register your SIM card,” the statement added.

It explained that the SIM registration was part of measures being taken to ensure a secure and safe digital ecosystem to protect consumers and businesses.

“The SIM Registration exercise will solve a lot of issues in the industry. We can all attest to the fact that there has been a notice­able decline in SIM-related fraud since the commencement of the registration exercise,” the state­ment noted.

It advised all citizens and residents to check the number of SIMs registered to their Ghana Card to ensure that they retain the mandated number of SIM Cards which was 10 adding that, any additional SIM registered above the mandated number would be deactivated.

The statement assured the pub­lic that government was working to provide an enabling environ­ment for all to access and use digital platforms by fostering the development of the technologies including SIM enabled ones.

BY TIMES REPORTER