The Director General for National Communications Authority (NCA), Mr. Joe Anokye has stated that, Ghana now has a single central SIM Register as mandated by Executive Instrument 63, 2020.
Mr. Anokye disclosed this at a press conference that focus on the MTN Zone Bundle and the SIM Registration Exercise.
“We can now state that Ghana has a single central SIM Register as mandated by Executive Instrument 63, 2020. It is also important to note that Ghana, now has a SIM Database that has integrity. Every active registered SIM in the current SIM Registration Database can be traced to a unique Ghana Card (currently there are 25,448,962 SIMs tied to about 13,982,557 unique Ghana Cards)”.
The Active Mass SIM Registration for Existing SIMs according to Mr. Joe Anokye is coming to a close adding, about 11 million SIMs are yet to begin the registration process.
“The subscribers of these Unregistered Active SIMs have up to the end of May 2023, to complete their SIM Registration or have their SIMs deactivated from the network”.
The only exemptions he mentioned, would be for those exempted SIMs for Ghanaians on National Duties outside Ghana, Foreign Diplomats and Refugees.
“Subscribers who do not genuinely have Ghana Cards will have to prove that they do not have Ghana Cards to prevent their SIMs being deactivated”. The SIM Registration Exercise he pointed out would only be for NEW SIMs from 1st June, 2023.
NCA Director General assured the general public that, the SIM Database has not been breach and that, there has been no unauthorised access to the SIM Registration database.
He revealed that in the coming days, the Manos would introduce a system to enable subscribers check the number and detail of SIMs registered to their respective Ghana Cards saying, based on statistics, there are about 11 million active unregistered SIMs.
In order to protect the integrity of the SIM Registration, NCA has directed the Manos to: Complete the classification of all SIM Ownership into either individual or Business SIM.
Again, deactivate all SIMs that are partially registered (stage 1); Strictly apply the limit of 10 SIMs to Individual SIMs; Develop a solution whereby consumers can use a Short Code to check the number of SIMs registered with their Ghana Cards; Ensure that consumers that want to delink SIM Cards from their Ghana Cards can do so after a full KYC and eyeballing of the customer by the MNO; And, develop enterprise and web-based systems for Businesses to check and delink SIMs that are no longer in use or are unwanted by the Business.
The limit of (10) SIM registration is for individual subscribers while, corporate entities can register more than (10) SIMs.
However, the overall National Statistics for the SIM Registration indicated that, the total Active SIMs at Inception of Exercise with MNOs and BWAs stands at 42,749,709 with current total Active SIMs at 36,571,257 as against the Active unregistered SIMs of 11,122,295.
On the issue of MTN Zone Bundle, NCA said MTN has since submitted a revised Data Zone Bundle which has been approved the the Authority for implementation.
NCA has therefore, assured consumers and the general public that, the regulatory interventions resulting from the classification of MTN as SMP are intended to sustain choice for consumers and protect consumers interest regarding the provision of innovative services and competitive pricing.
