Over 5.7 million subscribers' SIM cards to be deactivated if... — MTN Ghana announces

According to the telco, it will start a complete disconnection exercise of all SIM cards not fully registered with the Ghana Card.

Subscribers who have completed Stage 1 (Linkage of Ghana Card ID to SIM Card) but have not completed Stage 2 (Biometric Capture) (Not fully registered with the Ghana Card) are expected to be affected.

It said it will deactivate the SIM cards of 5,701,149 subscribers on December 1, 2022.

In a statement, MTN said it had already complied with the first stage of the directive by deactivating the data services of SIM Cards that have not fully registered with the Ghana Card on November 20, 2022, as directed.

"Customers should note that a fully registered SIM card is one that has successfully completed both Stage 1 (Linkage) and Stage 2 (Bio-capture). All deactivated SIM cards can be reactivated within six months from December 1, 2022 (the date of deactivation), by completing the bio-capture process," it stated.

As of November 26, 2022, 22,112,943, MTN Ghana subscribers had successfully linked their Ghana cards to their SIM cards (Stage 1), while 16,411,794 had completed the bio-capture phase (Stage 2).

The move complies with the directive from the National Communications Authority (NCA) communicated to all telecom operators in a meeting held on November 17, 2022.