The National Communications Authority (NCA) has blocked eight million Subscribers Identity Module (SIM) cards in the Central SIM Registry which have not been registered.
This means that the owners of such SIM cards cannot make calls, send Short Message Service (SMS) or do any financial transaction with their SIMs until they take steps to register the cards.
The NCA gave a new deadline in April 26, 202, after several postponement, to block unregistered SIMs by the end of May 2023.
The Director of Consumer and Corporate Affairs of NCA, Nana Defie Asamoa-Bonsu Badu, who disclosed this in an interview with the Ghanaian Times in Accra on Friday, said as of the end of May 31, 2023, the deadline for the Mass SIM Registration, eight million cards had not been registered.
She explained that the intention of the NCA was to delete all the unregistered SIMS from the Central SIM Registry.
However, Mrs Badu said in order for the owners not lose the SIMs entirely and the information on them, the NCA had decided to block them so the owners could register to reactivate their SIMs.
“The owners of the SIMs which have been blocked will not lose their data and can retrieve all the information on the SIMs after completing registration with their Ghana Cards,” she stated.
The Director of Consumer and Corporate Affairs explained that as of April 26, 2023, about 11 million SIMs had not been registered, but by the end of May 31, 2023, three million out of the 11 million unregistered had registered.
Thus so far, she said 28,448,962 SIMs had been registered out of the 36,571,257 active SIM cards.
Mrs Badu further said people who have money on their blocked SIM cards could contact their service providers and complete the necessary Know Your Customers processes to access their monies.
The Director for Consumer and Corporate Affairs indicated that the NCA was working with the service providers to reconcile the number of registered subscribers on their SIM register with the Central SIM Registry.
“We are monitoring the situation and have begun work with the mobile network operators to clean the database,” she stated.
The country began the Mass Registration of SIMs in October 2021, using only the Ghana Card as a means of verification and identification, unlike previous exercises where passports could be used to register a SIM card.
The objective is to prevent criminals and fraudsters to use their SIM cards to commit crime and dupe people.
Meanwhile, affected subscribers continue to besiege the offices of telecommunication companies to have their SIM cards registered.
When the Ghanaian Times visited some of the offices of the telecommunication companies at the Abeka Junction, Ring Road Central and Industrial Area on Friday, long queues had been formed by those whose SIM cards had been blocked in an attempt to register them to access telecommunication services.
BY KINGSLEY ASARE
