The National Communications Authority (NCA) has announced its intention to impose penalties on users who have not registered their SIM cards.
This new policy is set to go into effect on Monday, September 5, 2022.
Outgoing calls and data services for a sequential batch of numbers will be blocked for two days weekly on a rotational basis, according to a statement signed by the Authority’s Director-General.
“MNOs [Mobile Network Operators] must divide unregistered SIM cards into five batches in order to implement this punitive measure.”
“These measures shall not include SMS blocking in order to allow defaulting subscribers to initiate registration if they so desire.” Subscribers who fully register their SIM Cards within the 48-hour period will be unblocked by the MNOs only after the 48-hour period to avoid the MNOs tampering with their systems intermittently,” parts of the statement read.
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The Authority also requested that MNOs work with the Electricity Company of Ghana, Ghana Water, and other service providers to ensure that their data-only SIMs are properly registered.
The Director-General also directed the MNOs to configure their systems to allow non-resident Ghanaians to use passports until December 31, 2022.
“MNOs shall place disconnected SIM Cards in a holding category, and current subscribers of these SIM Cards shall be given six (6) months to register their SIM cards, failing which the MNOs shall churn these numbers.”
The Publics perspective
The SIM card registration has been an ongoing exercise since last year, and according to the Minister of Communication, Ursula Owusu, it has become necessary to force the hands of unregistered SIM holders, as she believes a lot of people intentionally do not want to register their SIM cards.
While other citizens complain bitterly about their National Identification cards not being issued or without data to upload onto the SIM card registration system, the Minister seems not to be listening to the public.
Source: Cititv
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