The Minister for Communications and Digitization, Ursula Owusu-Ekufful says the nationwide SIM re-registration exercise the government has said is to end mobile money fraud will start from October 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022.
Hon Ursula Owusu announcing the date at a press briefing monitored by EducationWeb.com.gh said the exercise will last for a period of six months adding that any SIM card which not re-registered before April 1, 2022, will be blocked.
“Barring any unforeseen eventualities, SIM Registration will begin on 1st October 2021 for a six (6) month period and end on 31st March 2022. Any sim which is not registered at the end of this exercise will be blocked,” she stated.
According to her, existing subscribers will register their SIMs via USSD and a sim application App to be launched soon.
“The minimum age for SIM registration has been set at 15 years, taking into consideration the increased use of communications services since the onset of the COVID 19 pandemic and to facilitate E-education,” Ursula added.
Speaking at a press briefing, the Communications and Digitization Minister said Ghanaians can register a total number of 10 SIM cards across all networks and foreigners with a limit of 3 SIM cards across all networks in the country,
“Let me caution here, that people should not think that they can hide behind Businesses and register as many SIM Cards as they want,” the Member of Parliament for Ablekuma West Constituency told the media.
She noted that all SIM cards registered to a business will be linked to a Shareholder or Director of the business and if a business SIM is found to have been engaged in fraudulent activity, the Shareholder or Director will be held liable
“SIM registration, when undertaken correctly as we intend to do, will reduce or eliminate fraudulent and criminal activities, help authorities ascertain the accurate number of valid and accurate SIMs on the networks,” the MP said.
Explaining further the process of registration, Ursula said only the National Identity Card (Ghana Card) shall be used for the registration of SIM cards of citizens, foreign residents and foreigners staying in Ghana for more than 90 days.
“In the case of foreigners staying in Ghana for less than 90 days, a valid passport or other travel document is required,” the lawyer and politician told journalists at the press briefing held in Accra on Sunday, September 5.
Ghana lacks leaders who think. Ghana card ask yourself how many citizens have it? That short period the Ghana card registration was used in 2019 wasn’t enough.. hence, this new exercise requires that ghana card re-opens it’s offices again in our various community centers for every citizen to get his or her card before the next step. Common sense!!