On May 31, 2023, more than 11 million unregistered SIM cards will be deactivated, according to the National Communications Authority (NCA).
Addressing the press in Accra, the Director General of the NCA, Joe Anokye, said, “One of the things to note is that active mass SIM registration for existing SIMs is coming to a close and as mentioned earlier, we have about 11 million SIMs which are yet to begin the registration process, these subscribers have up to the end of May 2023 to complete their SIM registration or have their SIMs deactivated from the network”.
He confirmed that the Central SIM registration database’s data security for mobile subscribers is unharmed. Industry observers have expressed concerns over a few data breaches, but the Authority maintains that the system’s integrity is unaltered.
The NCA also justified a directive to major industry player, MTN to suspend its data zone service.
Mr. Joe Anokye said MTN which had been identified as a Significant Market Player breached regulations.
“MTN should not charge lower for voice, SMS, and data. MTN should not charge off-net calls. MTN has so far been in compliance with the directive. However, in January 2023, the NCA took notice of MTN data zone bundle, the 24-hour data bundle for the various data allocations. Some market players raised concerns, and NCA engaged MTN and reviewed the product. We realised that the MTN data bundle was the lowest on the market and in violation of the directive. It was directed to discontinue the service,” he explained.
In a previous report relating to this, the National Communications Authority (NCA) announced the deletion of all SIM cards that were to be effected on April 17, 2023, but it seemed that never happened.
There will be deactivation of SIM cards that have not been re-registered with Ghana cards.
On Thursday, April 13, the NCA issued a directive stating that all inactive SIM cards must be removed from all existing databases. To be clear, this also applied to SIMs that were disabled in November 2022 for failing to complete the SIM registration process in its entirety.
All SIM cards that have been registered above the 10-per-person limit must be disconnected, deactivated, and deleted from all systems by today.
Following the NCA’s directive, the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications issued a press release agreeing to follow the rules.
There was a further recommendation that “all subscribers with more than 10 SIMs registered to themselves should also visit their nearest mobile network operator’s service centres to urgently verify their SIMs on record.”
How to register sim with Ghana Card
All Ghana Card users who already have a SIM card will have to register it using the USSD short code *404#. SIM card owners in Ghana can also use the sim registration app available on the Google Play Store or the Apple Store.
1. Dial *404#, which is the Ghana Card SIM Registration short number.
2. Then, enter your Ghana Card PIN (letters and numbers, no hyphens).
3. Confirm Ghana Card Pin
4. After that, type in your last name.
5. Then type your first name(s).
6. Enter your date of birth (DDMMYYYY format).
7. Then, enter “Select Sex” and choose “Male or Female.”
8. After that, confirm the details you entered and click “Submit.”
9. A unique code will be created for you.
10. The last step is to go to any Ghana Card Office near you with the unique code to finish the registration process. You can also get this done by calling Ghana Card customer service.
