Telcos to start disabling unregistered SIMs

The Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications has issued a statement to inform the public that starting “from close of today,” it’s members “AirtelTigo, MTN and Vodafone” will “begin deactivating some category of SIM cards in compliance with the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation's directive issued on November 11, 2022.”

The statement was released today, Wednesday, November 30, 2022.

Stressing that “only subscribers that have completed stage 1 (linkage to Ghana Card) but are yet to complete stage 2 (biometric capture) of the SIM registration, will have their SIM Cards blocked,” the Chamber outlined the “services to be blocked.”

“Voice, Data (Mobile Phones, MiFis, other data providing devices), SMS (incoming and outgoing), USSD, Mobile Money services and Emergency services,” it indicated.

The Chamber also encouraged “all subscribers who have acquired Ghana Cards but are yet to complete stage 2 (biometric capture) to do so without delay.”

“Our members are obliged by the directive to completely deactivate all subscriber SIMs which have not completed the biometric capture registration by close of business today, November 30, 2022,” the Chamber of Telecommunications’ statement continued.

It prompted that: “Subscribers with Ghana Cards can avoid this inconvenience by completing the registration process,” and pledged that, “Our members remain committed to supporting the efforts of all stakeholders to ensure that every customer in every part of the country is able to register their SIM card(s) with the Ghana Card.”

Since November 20, the telecommunications companies in Ghana have been blocking data services for subscribers who have only linked their Ghana Card and SIMs (Stage 1) but have not captured their biometric data (Stage 2) as part of the SIM registration process as directed by the Ursula Owusu-Ekuful-led Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation.