The Minister of Communication, Ursula Owusu Ekuful, says the registration of mobile SIM cards is expected to begin on 1st October 2021.
The exercise, which will last for six months, will end on 31st March 2022.
Any SIM which is not registered at the end of this exercise will be blocked, according to the Minister.
The Minister disclosed this in a Facebook post.
Re-register your SIMs with Ghana card – Bawumia
In a bid to rid the country’s cyberspace of fraud, monitor and track down persons who use their phones for criminal activities, the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia recently disclosed that plans are underway to ensure that all Ghanaians with SIM cards re-register them using the National Identification card also known as Ghana card.
Speaking at the 5th Ghana CEO Summit in Accra, the Vice President noted that any individual who fails to take part in the exercise risks losing his or her SIM card.
“We all have to do that otherwise we’ll lose that SIM card. That will really give us a real identity for all MoMo transactions. For example, it takes away fraud that is taking place like SIM box and through MoMo”, he added.
The move has been criticized by the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu who has argued that undertaking a SIM re-registration exercise will not solve the issue of Mobile Money fraud as expected by Dr. Bawumia.
He said the Vice President is “ill-informed, inept and highly naive,” with that assumption.
“The solution to the challenges of fraud within the electronic money ecosystem goes beyond SIM registration,” he said.
“We hold the view that the mandatory re-registration of SIMS provides no substantial benefit in the fight against electronic money fraud, and will face practical challenges such as inbound travellers who require a SIM card without a national ID,” he added.
A similar exercise was organized in June 2020.