According to the Ministry of Communications, about 280,000 merchant SIMs are not registered, giving criminals a chance to utilize them to continue their illegal activities.
Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the Minister of Communications and Digitalization, updated lawmakers on the SIM re-registration process and announced that all unregistered merchant SIMs will be permanently disabled at the end of June 2023.
"Nearly 280,000 merchant SIMs haven't been registered, I've also been told. A few weeks ago, a social media video went viral that claimed that some criminal networks had really purchased merchant SIMs to enable fraudulent activity. Let me stress that at the end of June 2023, all unregistered merchant SIMs will be indefinitely disabled.
Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful urged victims of illegal acts to notify the National Communications Authority (NCA) for action to be taken against the perpetrators.
She further advised subscribers who were unable to complete the second stage of the registration process to contact the NCA to have their SIMs 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.
They must move quickly, she continued, because the NCA will announce when this embargo will end and all unregistered SIMs will be permanently barred from networks at that point. Please go register if your line has been blocked and you still need it. However, some SIMs could unintentionally be blocked during full registration. Please alert the NCA so that a thorough investigation may be done to ascertain whether this really happened and why.
The Bank of Ghana and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are collaborating to make it easier for people to get their money back from mobile money accounts, the Minister of Communications and Digitalization revealed.Many users have expressed their concerns about not being able to access their mobile money accounts' funds after their SIM cards were disabled due to failure to re-register them.
The Minister reassured viewers that the MNOs and the Bank of Ghana are collaborating to find a quick solution to the problem.