SIM registration for existing subscribers ends on May 31

The Director General of the National Communications Authority (NCA), Joe Anokye, has announced that the ongoing SIM Registration exercise end on May 31, 2023. The exercise commenced on October 1, 2021.

The Director General announced this at a Press Briefing at the NCA Tower in Accra today. According to Mr. Anokye, there are approximately 11 million active but unregistered SIMs that will be deactivated from networks after May 31, 2023. The 11 million SIMs include subscribers who were exempted from the current exercise.

These include diplomats, refugees, and Ghanaians on official duties outside the country. Others include subscribers who have registered some of their SIMs, people with Ghana Cards who have refused to register, as well as others without Ghana cards.

According to Mr. Anokye, at the inception of the SIM registration exercise on October 1st, 2021, there were 42,749,709 active SIMs registered with various forms of identification, such as the NHIA card, passport, driver's license, etc used for registration. However, a lot of these IDs were not verified at the time they were being used to register the SIMs.

He also indicated that out of the 36,571,257 SIMs registered as of 25th April 2023, 25,448,962 SIMs have completed both Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the SIM registration exercise using the Ghana Card, and have been fully registered and stored in the central SIM database.

Speaking about the integrity of the SIM database, Mr. Anokye said “We wish to assure the general public that the SIM Database has not been breached. In the first place, there has been no unauthorized access to the SIM Registration database; the identified abuses of the stage one process, which have been resolved, do not amount to unauthorized access to the SIM Registration database”.

He further assured the public that the Authority is working with mobile network operators to deploy shortcode *402*1# for subscribers to check the details linked to their Ghana Cards. “Effective May 1, 2023, subscribers will be able to use the shortcode to check how many SIMs are lined to their Ghana Cards and will also be able to contact the customer care centers of their MNO to delink unwanted numbers”, Mr. Anokye said.

Mr. Anokye explained that the SIM registration exercise was necessary for building trust and confidence in the use of telecommunications, financial, and other essential services, as a reliable SIM register would aid security and law enforcement activities, protect Ghana's common peace, and promote socio-economic development. Therefore, he urged stakeholders, including the media, to support the exercise's success.

At the same briefing, the Director General also discussed the MTN Zone Bundle, a 24-hour data bundle that offered discounts of up to 35% for various data allocations. He noted that the NCA had instructed MTN to discontinue the product until all Significant Market Power (SMP) measures were in compliance.

However, after several engagements between the NCA and MTN, the latter submitted a revised Data Zone Bundle, which the Authority has approved for implementation.