The Communications Ministry has directed that owners of SIM cards of various networks in the country re-register them by June 2020.
The directive, according to the ministry, is to fight fraud and other crimes in the country.
The sector minister, Ursula Owusu Ekuful who made this known during the ministry’s turn at the regular Meet-the-press session said the re-registration window will be opened from January 2020 to June 2020.
She cautioned that persons who fail to comply with the directive will have their SIMs deactivated.
“It is quite clear that the current SIM card registration regime is deficient and fraught with many challenges, defeating the purpose of the SIM registration regulations. Mindful of this, cabinet earlier this year directed the Minister for Communications to instruct all telecommunication companies to fully comply with the law governing sim card acquisition which requires the presentation of a valid ID document prior to registration,” the minister said on Monday.
“The ministry has consulted all relevant stakeholders and hereby announces that from 1st January 2020, we would all be required to re-register our SIM cards. Any SIM card which is not registered will be deactivated by June 2020, giving a six-month time frame for this exercise. We entreat all citizens, residents and visitors to cooperate with us to ensure the success of this exercise for our collective security,” she added.
Background
The early part of this year saw the Communications Ministry pledging to rectify all shortfalls that come with SIM card registration in the country.
The Ministry in a statement instructed all stakeholders including telecommunication companies to ensure strict compliance with the SIM registration and activation processes in line with the relevant statutory provisions.
Mobile users were also urged to confirm the status and details of their registration by dialing *400# on their mobile handsets and following up with their respective mobile networks to correct errors in the registration detail.
The use of wrongly registered SIM cards to perpetrate cyber crimes and other forms of fraud in the country has been on the ascendancy.
Despite efforts to deal with the problem, the situation has persisted.
