Ghana Card Wahala: Sim card re-registration deadline extended to September 30

For the second time, it has been extended and is likely to be the final extention – The deadline for re-registering of SIM cards in Ghana by linking them to the controversial Ghana Card has been extended until September 30, 2022.

Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, announced the extension of the deadline on Sunday, July 31st, 2022, during a press conference.

According to Ursula Owusu, the extension is the result of negotiations with major industry players, as well as taking a critical view of some difficulties that many people have in attaching their sim cards to the Ghana Cards.

Many people have had difficulty re-registering their SIM cards, as mandated by the Ministry of Communication and Digitalisation which we at Townflex.com will boldly say is no fault of the ordinary citizens they have not been able to meet the initial deadline which was formerly scheduled to end on Sunday, July 31, 2022.

The minister also acknowledged the fact that many have had challenges with getting themselves registered for their Ghana Cards i.e joining long queues among others which however happened to be the reason so many failed to re-register their sim cards after the expected deadline.

Speaking in regards to the extension of the deadline, below reads what Ursula Owusu said.

“Upon consultation with the industry and in view of the challenges enumerated above, I have very reluctantly decided to grant a conditional extension. The program will be extended to 30th September to end on the anniversary of its commencement.”

“That will give us one full year of SIM registration. It will 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 receiving certain services including voice and data services,” she said.

She also stated that the deadline extension is the final one.

“The statistics indicate that there was a 90% drop in SIM reregistration, as soon as the first deadline was extended on 21st March. Until a week ago there were no queues, people started going to register when they realised that the deadline was imminent after going to sleep.”

“The mobile network operators, NCA, and the NIA have all engaged additional staff, procured the necessary logistics and are incurring significant expenses to conduct this exercise successfully, any extension of the process increases their cost,” she added.

According to data from the 2021 Population and Housing Census, there are 19.9 million Ghanaians aged 15 and up.

Based on the figures provided by the Finance Minister during the presentation of the 2022 mid-year budget review, just 15.7 million of them have been able to receive their Ghana Card.

Per the Minister of Communications and Digitisation, just 12 million of the 19.9 million have been able to properly register their SIM cards.

The Communications Minister has stated that a self-registration app will be available next week, allowing people to register from the comfort of their own homes.