SIM Card Re-Registration To Begin January 2020 – Communication Minister

Ursula Owusu-Ekuful

Beginning from January 2020, there will be the re-registration of Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card in Ghana.

Minister of Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, made this known to the media on Monday, October 14, 2019, at the Information Ministry in Accra.

According to her, the Ministry has consulted all relevant stakeholders on the move and that the exercise would commence on January 1.

She warned that any SIM card which is not registered would be deactivated by June 2020, giving a six month time frame for this exercise.

She therefore entreated all citizens, residents and visitors to cooperate to ensure the success of the re-registration exercise.

Ghana enacted the SIM Registration Regulations, 2011 (L.I. 2006) primarily to reduce mobile phone related crimes such as prank calls, cyber-crime, mobile money fraud and its related issues and general security.

It is also intended to help the law enforcement agencies to identify the SIM card owners, track criminals who use phones for illegal activities, curb incidents such as phone theft, hate text messages, mobile fraud activities, inciting violence, and to combat crime such as SIM Box fraud.

According to the Minister, “SIM registration also enables subscribers to be properly identified for the use of value added services such as mobile banking, mobile money, and electronic payment services.”

She noted that due to the crucial nature of SIM registration and its security implications for the country, Mobile Network Operators were required to ensure SIMs were registered properly before activation on the mobile network to avoid inconsistencies and fake subscriber identity.

Even though the SIM Registration regulations are still in force, she noted, it is not being enforced due to the lack of an acceptable, fake proof, identification card and non existence of verification by a national database to ensure the traceability of the individual who registered the SIM card.

Currently, Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful observed, “there is no solution in place to integrate all the databases of Card Issuing Agencies for the seamless verification of IDs used for registration of SIMs to be effectively conducted.”

In addition to this, the Ministry of Communications has noted other deficiencies of the existing SIM card registration regime in Ghana including the sale of pre-registered SIM cards, the use of pre-registered SIM cards and fraudulent registration of SIM cards, she said.

“All of these activities are proscribed by law. These deficiencies facilitate fraudulent activities perpetuated through the use of mobile phones such as mobile money fraud, illegal SIM swap, illegal termination of international traffic (SIM-Boxing) leading to loss of revenue to the state, impersonation and cyber-crime,” according to her.

“Though some IDs submitted for registration of SIMs may have been valid, however due to the poorly implemented manual verification process, millions of SIMs registered have been rendered invalid because of non-verification of these IDs electronically with the databases of the Card Issuing Agencies”.

Some network operators, she complained, “also hired illiterate or semi-literate agents to do the SIM registration on commission basis – i.e. the MNOs paid agents according to how many subscribers they registered per day.”

“Due to the monetary considerations, some agents cut corners and even pre-register several SIMs with different IDs for sell to unsuspecting clients that seek SIMs Reports received from some subscribers indicate that some agents registered SIMs without taking subscribers’ ID details, while others presented valid IDs for registration but later checks indicated their SIMs are registered in the names of other persons they do not know,” she said.

‘Others indicated that some agents gave them an option to either buy a pre registered card or queue to register and some subscribers obviously opted for the pre registered SIMs to save time.
It is clear that the current SIM card registration regime is deficient and fraught with many challenges, defeating the purpose of the SIM Registration Regulations,” according to her.

BY Melvin Tarlue

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