The government’s plan to re-register all sim cards in the country has launched officially.
The exercise started today (Friday 1 October 2021) and is expected to last for six months (until 31 March 2022).
The exercise, which is in accordance with the Subscriber Identity Module Registration Regulations 2011 (LI 2006), is to curb sim boxing and other criminal activities perpetrated by fraudsters using fake sim cards as well as to facilitate e-education, among other measures.
Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, announced plans by the government to embark on re-registration of sim cards from October 2021.
Speaking at a press conference in September, she said the exercise would be mandatory for all citizens and non-citizens living in Ghana and is backed by law.
Owusu-Ekuful announced that individuals are required to use only their Ghana Cards for registration.
“The Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation will launch the National Sim Card Registration Exercise across the country next month [October],” she said. “Every subscriber is required to provide the name and residential or occupational address, date of birth, in the case of an individual; and certificate of incorporation, in the case of a body corporate, or registration, in the case of a partnership or an unincorporated body of persons; and an identification document.
“Only the National Identity Card (Ghana Card) issued to an individual shall be used for registration of sim cards of citizens, foreign residents and foreigners staying in Ghana for more than 90 days. In the case of foreigners staying in Ghana for less than 90 days, a valid passport or other travel document is required,” the minister said.
Owusu-Ekuful said it has become imperative to rerun the registration exercise because miscreants managed to compromise the existing system, making it difficult “to track and trace people who commit crimes with the sim cards”.
“This isn’t the first attempt to register sims but all the previous efforts failed because of the lack of a verifiable secure identification document. The above situation also led to the influx of pre-registered sim cards in the system, hence our inability to track and trace people who commit crimes with the sim cards.
“The prevalence of fake IDs and a non-existent system of verifying the IDs led to unscrupulous individuals procuring hundreds of sim cards for sim boxing, leading to the loss of revenue for the state. The Ghana Card provides the basis for a successful sim registration exercise this time,” Owusu-Ekuful said.
How to register your sim with the Ghana Card
- Dial the shortcode *404#
- Enter your Ghana Card pin (Note: Enter letters and figures without hyphens)
- Confirm Ghana Card pin
- Enter surname
- Enter first name/s
- Enter date of birth (Format: DD/MM/YYYY)
- Select sex
- Confirm details
- Submit details provided after confirmation
- Visit your service provider with the unique code to complete the registration process
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