SIM registration exercise will not be extended again – Ursula
Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the minister for communications and digitalization, has issued a warning that the deadline for registering SIM cards in Ghana won’t be postponed a second time.
The exercise, which started on October 1, 2021, was initially intended to end on March 31, 2022, but the sector ministry extended it to July 31, 2022, because more than 7.5 million citizens and residents at the time had not yet received their Ghana Cards, which would have allowed them to register their SIM cards.
Over 12 million Ghanaians, according to the Minister, have linked their SIM cards and Ghana cards to date.
She noted during a National Communications Authority (NCA) seminar in Kumasi that the exercise will ultimately aid in the build a credible and safe SIM card database in Ghana.
“Most people access their internet through their mobile devices. We must make sure that they do so safely. We must make it difficult for the criminals who hack our systems and defraud us through multiple online channels to operate, and this SIM registration exercise is one of the steps the government is taking in that regard. Essentially, this stresses the point that this exercise will enable the establishment of a subscriber database with integrity to keep the consumers safe from scams and fraud.”
“I, therefore, take this opportunity to urge all those who’ve not registered their SIM cards to do so as the deadline of 31st July 2022 will not be extended,” she stated.