Mobile telecommunication giant, MTN Ghana, has declared that it would start a process to completely disconnect any SIM cards that aren't fully registered with the Ghana Card.
It is anticipated that this would affect subscribers who have finished Stage 1 (Linkage of Ghana Card ID to SIM Card) but have not finished Stage 2 (Biometric Capture) ("Not fully registered with the Ghana Card").
On December 1, 2022, the process will start, and an estimated 5,701,149 users will no longer be able to use any services on unregistered SIM cards.
By November 26, 2022, 16,411,794 MTN Ghana customers had successfully finished the bio-capture phase, while 22,112,943 had successfully linked their Ghana cards to their SIM cards.
The action is in accordance with the National Communications Authority's (NCA's) decision, which was shared with all telecom providers in a meeting on November 17, 2022.
In a statement, it claimed that by disconnecting the data services of SIM Cards that have not properly registered with the Ghana Card as instructed on November 20, 2022, it has already complied with the first step of the mandate.
"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 explained.
The telecom giant stated that if deactivated SIM cards are not activated by the end of May 2023, they would be discarded.
Therefore, MTN asked all of its customers to make an effort to complete their registration as soon as possible at any of its service centres.
It expressed regret over the inconvenience the deactivation has brought around for its clients and pledged to help get them back online.