SIM card re-registration deadline extended to September 30 – Ursula Owusu-Ekuful

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The deadline for re-registering SIM cards has been moved up to September 30, 2022.

The Ministry of Communication and Digitalization has mandated that SIM cards be reregistered, although many consumers have had trouble doing so. The Exercise was supposed to terminate on July 31, 2022, on a Sunday.

However, the Communications and Digitalization Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, stated at a press conference on Sunday that the extension came after discussions with industry stakeholders.

“I have very reluctantly decided to give a conditional extension after consulting with the industry and in light of the difficulties listed above. The program will continue through September 30 in order to terminate on the anniversary of its beginning.

We’ll have a full year of SIM registration after that. Any SIM that has not been fully registered by the end of August would be prohibited from receiving certain services, including phone and data services, she added. It will be evaluated at the end of this month.

The Minister pointed out that many Ghanaians failed to register their SIMs even when the deadline was extended, in spite of problems with the Ghana Card, such as long lines.

So, this deadline extension is the last one.

The numbers show that when the initial deadline was extended on March 21st, there was a 90 percent decrease in SIM reregistration. Before a week ago, there were no lines; instead, people began going to register as soon as they realized the deadline was approaching after going to bed.

“The mobile network providers, NCA, and the NIA have all hired additional people, acquired the required logistics, and are investing significant money to complete this exercise successfully,” she continued. “Any extension of the procedure increases their cost.”

This comes as a large number of Ghanaians swarmed telecom stores all over the nation in an effort to register their SIM cards in time for the second deadline on Sunday, July 31.

According to a JoyNews study, 7.9 million Ghanaians should lose their SIM cards by the deadline.

There are 19.9 million Ghanaians who are 15 years of age or older, according to information from the 2021 Population and Housing Census.

According to figures provided by the Finance Minister during the presentation of the 2022 mid-year budget review, just 15.7 million of them have been able to receive their Ghana Cards.

According to the Minister of Communications and Digitization, just 12 million of the 19.9 million have been able to fully register their SIM cards.

A deadline extension for the SIM card re-registration process was requested from the government and the Communications Ministry.

A self-sim registration app would be released the following week, according to the Communications Minister, allowing people to register in the comfort of their own homes.