‘Measures’ to deal with people who deliberately refuse to re-register SIM cards – Ursula hints
Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the minister of communications and digitalization, has made hints about potential penalties for people who consciously chose not to take part in the SIM Re-registration exercise.
This comes after the Ministry’s October deadline which was given to encourage SIM users to re-register their cards expired.
However, Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful maintained that in order to address the difficulties faced by registrants with reasonable worries, her ministry is in contact with the National Identification Authority (NIA).
She urged all Ghanaians to support the steps the government is putting in place to preserve the digital space while speaking on the sidelines of the Technology Breakfast Meeting, which was organized to increase public sector chief executives’ understanding of the government’s digitalization agenda.
“We all need to ensure that we protect the systems that we are putting in place. This is one aspect of it, but the SIM re-registration is also another aspect of it. There are some who have genuine concerns, and we are working with the NIA to [address them]. But there are others who have the Ghana cards but have not completed the process. So clearly, either they do not intend to, or are unwilling to, so we will have some measures to announce in due course soon,” the Minister of Communication and Digitalisation explained.
In October, the Ministry confirmed that 28,959,006 SIM cards had already been linked to Ghana Cards.
This figure equals 67.28% of the 42,749,662 SIM cards that were issued nationwide in total.
Additionally, 18,930,664 SIM Cards—or 44.28% of all SIM cards issued—have been fully registered.
The ministry recognized that some of our residents had trouble acquiring Ghana Cards, which would have allowed them to complete their SIM registration.
This led to the announcement of a grace period for persons who have started but not completed the process to re-register their SIM cards until October 31.
