Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons, has questioned the silence of the government on the SIM card re-registration exercise after the deadline for the exercise elapsed. In a tweet shared on Sunday, October 9, Simons said that the government has failed to let Ghanaians know their stance for more than a week after the stated September 30, 2022, deadline passed. “One week after a so-called deadline for all Ghanaian subscribers to re-register their SIM cards with only the Ghana Card lapsed, the govt is keeping folks in limbo as to whether it will block unregistered lines,” parts of the tweets. The IMANI vice president urged the government to employ what he describes as the ‘ SMART behavioral methods’. “The most liberty-compatible and cost-effective way of addressing any problems associated with the use of mobile phones would have been to push voluntary registration and required the telcos to indicate to subscribers whether an incoming call is from an unregistered user so people can choose,” he explained. He added that the method he is suggesting is more efficient and cost-effective than the current approach the government is using. The Minister for Communication and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, announced that the deadline for the SIM card re-registration is Friday, September 30, 2022. The September 30 deadline is an extension of the initial deadline, which was scheduled for July 31, 2022. The minister said that the extension had become necessary owing to challenges such as delays in the rollout of a self-serving registration app and delays in the acquisition of Ghana Cards, which is the mandatory document for registration. "Upon consultation with the industry and in view of the challenges enumerated above, I have very reluctantly decided to grant a final conditional extension. "The programme will be extended to September 30 to end on the anniversary of its commencement. That will give us one full year of SIM registration to be reviewed at the end of this month and any SIM that has not been fully registered by the end of August will be barred from fully receiving certain services including voice and data services. It will also be more expensive to use unregistered SIMs," the minister stated. The National Communication Authority, who affirmed the September 30 deadline for the exercise, announced that all SIM cards which have not been registered after the deadline will be totally blocked. View Bright Simon’s tweet below:

One week after a so-called deadline for all Ghanaian subscribers to re-register their SIM cards with only the Ghana Card lapsed, the govt is keeping folks in limbo as to whether it will block unregistered lines. My decade-old suggestion stands: use SMART behavioral methods. pic.twitter.com/jlnBBgVGms— Bright Simons (@BBSimons) October 9, 2022 IB/BOG