She disclosed that alternative arrangements will soon be made for Ghanaians without Ghana cards to register their SIM cards.
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SIM registration: Individuals without Ghana Card not blocked — Ursula
The Minister of Communications and Digitalisation Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has said individuals yet to obtain their Ghana Card will not be affected by the ongoing SIM deactivation.
Ursula Owusu
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The services to be blocked are; voice, data (Mobile, phones, mifis, other data providing devices), SMS (incoming and outgoing) USSD, mobile money services, and emergency services.
Ursula Owusu contributing to the budget debate in parliament refuted the assertion by ranking member for the communications Committee A.B.A Fuseini that subscribers without Ghana cards have had their SIM cards blocked.
She said "such subscribers will be made to use different IDs for registration soon accusing the minority of misleading Ghanaians into boycotting the Ghana card registration exercise when it began.
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"People did not have their Ghana Card because members of the NDC and the minority urged Ghanaians to register for the Ghana Card when the exercise commenced in 2018. In fact, the minority caucus issued a statement on 10th June 2018 and had a Press conference indicating their opposition to the Ghana Card registration exercise and indicating that they will not participate in the exercise. That is a fact and a matter of records."
"So for them to now say they never opposed the Ghana Card registration exercise is factually incorrect and this is a house of records.
"Mr. Speaker, I indicated in my statement of 11th November as well that we’re looking at making other arrangements for those who genuinely do not have Ghana Cards to enable them to complete the SIM Card registration exercise and that will be announced in due course," she added.
However, Mobile telecommunication giant MTN Ghana has announced that over 5.7 million subscribers' SIM cards have been deactivated as of December 1, 2022.
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.
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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 01, 2022 (the date of deactivation), by completing the bio-capture process," it stated.
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