NCA to punish unregistered SIM card users from Sept 5

Read the full statement

National Communications Authority (NCA)

– Press Release

PUNITIVE MEASURES FOR UNRESGISTERED SIM CARDS KICK IN SEPTEMBER 5

– Voice measures start Monday September 5
– Data measures start Monday September 12

Accra, September 4, 2022: A set of punitive measures designed to culminate the yearlong nationwide SIM registration exercise will kick in from Monday September 5, 2022.
The punitive measures are as follows:

1. From Monday, September 5, 2022, subscribers who have not started their registration will have all outgoing calls re-routed to an Interactive Voice Recording (IVR) for a SIM registration sensitisation message to be played before all calls are connected.

2. Subscribers with uncompleted registration, that is those who linked their Ghana Cards to their SIM cards via *404# but have not proceeded to have their biodata captured will also face similar disruption in service from Wednesday, September 7, 2022.

3. Punitive measures for data services will however kick in from September 12.

4. Outgoing calls and data services will be blocked for these affected subscribers for 48 hours once a week once the punitive measures kick in for the month of September, 2022.

5. Subscribers who have neither begun Stage 1 nor completed Stage 2 of the SIM Registration process will be allowed to reconnect their SIMs after duly completing the two stages of the registration process.

6. After September 30, 2022, these SIMs as described above will not have access to any service as their SIMs will be deactivated. Subscribers will have a period of six (6) months to register to redeem their SIMs failing which their numbers will be churned – that is re-assigned to the pool to be sold to potential new subscribers. The NCA encourages subscribers to register their SIMs to avoid the associated inconvenience and potential disruption in service after September 30. Subscribers are further reminded that, all Data SIMS, that is SIMs in devices such as MiFis, routers, trackers, etc. must also be registered.

MNOs are still continuing with SIM registration at their customer care centres and through agents who have been deployed across the country. Subscribers who have completed stage one (that is linking their Ghana Cards with their SIM cards by dialing *404#) with access to smartphones and internet connectivity are encouraged to download the GH SIM SELF REG app on the Google Play Store to complete their registration.

Issued by the National Communications Authority:
No. 6 Airport City, Accra
Tel: (0)30 – 2776621/2771701 or 050-145-1522/3
E-mail: info@nca.org.gh
Date – September 4, 2022

About NCA
The National Communications Authority, (NCA), was established by an Act of Parliament, Act 524 in
December 1996, which has been repealed and replaced by the National Communications Authority Act, 2008 (Act 769). The Authority is the statutory body mandated to license and to regulate electronic communication activities and services in the country.