An illegal market for pre-registered Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards is quietly growing across the country.
The media’s investigation revealed a network of vendors profiting from this trade. Some vendors work discreetly in bustling markets or target communities with limited awareness of the legal risks associated with using pre-registered SIMs, while others exploit the increasing demand.
Through interviews with insiders in locations such as Kasoa, Mankessim, and Assin Fosu in the Central Region, as well as Kwame Nkrumah Interchange and Madina Zongo Junction in Accra, the Daily Graphic team discovered that these vendors manage to obtain and sell hundreds of pre-registered SIM cards by taking advantage of existing registration loopholes.
“As for the registration, it is simple and if you get one Ghana Card, you can register like 10. First, you download the application; there are different ones but the same process across the networks”, Kwame Kwateng (not his real name), a vendor, told the Daily Graphic in an interview.
Breaching the rules
The sale of pre-registered SIM cards was supposed to cease with the National Communications Authority’s (NCA) introduction of a two-stage SIM re-registration process in 2022.
The first stage involved linking the SIM card to an identification document (Ghana Card), while the second stage required biometric verification to finalize the registration in the database.
This process was designed to ensure that no one could register a SIM card using another person’s details without their physical presence.
However, Mr. Kwateng revealed that vendors who captured customers’ biometric data stored and misused this information to register additional SIM cards without the customers’ knowledge or presence.
The Daily Graphic found that after being pre-registered, these SIM cards are sold, often at inflated prices, to individuals seeking anonymity, those avoiding registration requirements, or foreigners without a Ghana Card.
The Daily Graphic team purchased a SIM card from each telecom operator in the country for GH¢25. Each card was pre-registered and operational, with the following PUK numbers: 94480249 (MTN), 12462981 (AT), and 47270656 (Telecel).
Implications
This illicit activity has sparked significant concerns regarding national security, privacy violations, and the telecommunications industry’s integrity.
In response to the widespread illegal trade, MTN informed the Daily Graphic that it has been working with the police to identify and apprehend individuals involved, leading to the arrest of several perpetrators.
“We have in the past facilitated the arrest of about nine suspects related to this,” it said.
According to MTN, it was in compliance with the SIM Registration Regulation, LI 2006, and, therefore, did not condone the use, sale or purchase of pre-registered SIMs. “Customers in MTN’s database have validly been registered with a Ghana Card in accordance with the guidelines for SIM registration as issued by the NCA,” it said.
High alert
The Consumer and Corporate Affairs Department of the NCA informed the Daily Graphic that mobile network operators (MNOs) have methods to detect SIM cards with suspicious registrations and have been instructed to eliminate such cards from the system.
MNOs are required to track their vendors who have access to the SIM registration system and their precise location at the time of registration. This implies that all vendors registering SIM cards can be easily traced by the MNOs.
“Yeah, they have ways of knowing that. They can track the number registered and know who did the registration,” Kwame Gyan of the NCA Public Affairs Department told the Daily Graphic.
The NCA said the MNOs had, therefore, been put on high alert to identify vendors that engaged in the pre-registration and sale of such SIM cards on the open market.
Illegal activities
The impact of this underground market extends far beyond mere profit-making. The untraceable nature of pre-registered SIM cards provides a convenient tool for criminals to carry out illegal activities with impunity.
A Daily Graphic source said in an interview that at Assin Fosu, for instance, some individuals who engaged in mobile money fraud continuously sought pre-registered SIM cards to perpetuate their nefarious activities.
Law enforcement agencies struggle to track down perpetrators who utilise these untraceable numbers for fraud and cybercrime, among others. Meanwhile, the NCA faces an uphill task in dismantling this underground trade and holding offenders accountable.
In April, it issued a stern caution to the public regarding the sale and usage of pre-registered SIMs. The NCA said such actions were illegal and punishable by law.
“Under Section 738 of the Electronic Communications (Amendment) Act, 2016, Act 910, the sale and usage of pre-registered SIM cards is explicitly prohibited,” it stated. It explained that any individual knowingly involved in dealing with pre-registered SIM cards was committing an offence and was subject to penalties, including fines of up to three thousand penalty units, imprisonment for up to five years or both.
In light of these legal consequences, the NCA urged entities and individuals engaged in the illegal sale and usage of pre-registered SIM cards to immediately cease their activities and adhere to the proper procedures for acquiring and registering SIM cards.
Beyond that, the public was strongly advised against registering SIM cards on behalf of others as the owner of the Ghana Card used for registration will be held accountable if those numbers are implicated in any criminal activity.
Background
At the inception of the SIM re-registration exercise on October 1, 2021, there were about 42 million active SIM cards in the country. They were made up of SIM cards registered with identity cards such as the National Health Insurance Scheme cards, passports and driving licence.
The NCA, at whose behest the re-registration started, said a lot of these IDs were not verified at the time they were used to register the SIMs, hence the re-registration.
After the first phase of the exercise, there were about 36 million active SIM cards in circulation as of May 2023, out of which 25 million (69.6 per cent) had been duly re-registered. This means that over 25.4 million SIM cards had completed both stages one and two of the SIM re-registration, which was done with verified Ghana Cards as of June 2023.
tigpost.co
