All unregistered SIM cards will be blocked by December 2021 – Ursula

• Re-registration of cards starts on June 30 and ends in December 2021

• Persons who don’t re-register their SIMS will have them deactivated

• The measure is part of efforts to clamp down on the activities of cybercriminals

Communications and Digitalisation Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has disclosed that mobile phone subscribers who refuse or are unable to re-register their SIM cards before December this year will have their cards blocked.

She announced that the re-registration of SIM cards will commence on June 30 till December 2021.

Speaking at the 5th Ghana CEO Summit held in Accra on Tuesday, May 18, 2021, the Minister said that this new directive from the government is to help clamp down on the activities of cybercriminals.

“We will register SIM cards and SIM enabled devices from next month. And when the exercise ends in December this year, all unregistered sims will be blocked.

“We must clamp down on cyber criminals hiding behind the anonymity of digital systems to commit anti-social acts and this exercise is a key part of that campaign,” Ursula Owusu-Ekuful said.

She explained that the inability of the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo led government to embark on this project earlier was due to the lack of a secure database of Ghanaians.

“Our inability to do that in the past is largely being as a result of the lack a secure identity document to verify the identity of those who would register those SIMs.”