According to the Ministry of Communications, about 280,000 merchant SIMs are still unregistered.
According to the Ministry, these unregistered SIM cards give fraudsters the chance to continue their unlawful activities.
On June 8, 2023, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, minister of communications and digitalization, updated lawmakers on the SIM re-registration process and announced that all unregistered merchant SIMs would be permanently blocked at the end of June.
“I have also been informed that almost 280,000 merchant SIMs have not been registered. A viral video doing the rounds on social media a few weeks ago indicated that some criminal networks have actually acquired merchant SIMs to facilitate fraudulent activities. Let me reiterate once again, that all unregistered merchant SIMs will be blocked permanently at the end of June 2023,” she stated.
Madam Owusu-Ekuful also took advantage of the occasion to ask Ghanaians and those who had been harmed by illegal activity to alert the National Communications Authority (NCA) so that swift action could be taken against the offenders.
She also urged everyone who has not yet finished the second stage of the re-registration process to contact the NCA so that their SIM cards could be properly registered.
“I will urge victims of illegal acts to notify the National Communications Authority (NCA) and action will be taken to deter this process. I have also heard complaints that though they had registered their SIMs, those SIMs were blocked. My information is that several of these complaints are people who didn’t complete the second stage of the process as required. Such people should contact the NCA to have their SIMs registered and owners of the SIMs will get their numbers back after duly registration.
She added, “They must act timeously as the NCA will announce when this moratorium will end after which all unregistered SIMs will permanently be blocked from the networks. If your line has been blocked, and you still need it, please go and register. There may be however some whose SIMs are blocked inadvertently in full registration. Kindly notify the NCA and a full investigation will be conducted to be determined if this was really the case and why it happened”.
The minister also disclosed that Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and the Bank of Ghana are collaborating to make it easier for people to get their money back from mobile money accounts.
