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Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has assured subscribers facing difficulty in accessing their funds on their mobile money wallets that their monies are safe.

Even though these subscribers will not be able to transact any mobile money related activity, Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are working with the Bank of Ghana to ensure that they can retrieve their funds on the presentation of a valid ID and completion of the relevant KYC process.

Speaking on the floor of Parliament on the just ended SIM Re-registration exercise, the Minister said "to transact mobile money-related activity, the subscriber will have to complete their registration for the MNO to reactivate the SIM on the network".

Hon Ursula Owusu further underscored the need to do away with "unnecessary turf wars" and for a closer collaboration among entities in the digital financial space.

"This is an area where multiple regulatory mandates converge and it is absolutely critical for the regulator of financial services in Ghana, the Bank of Ghana, to collaborate closely with the regulator of the technological and telecommunications platforms to deliver those digital financial services, the National Communications Authority. I said so during the passage of the Payment Systems and Services Act, 2019, Act 987, in this very house and in other fora and was ignored. I hope we have now learnt our lessons and will desist from unnecessary turf wars and learn to work together in the interest of the ordinary citizen," she added.

Background

All active and unregistered SIM cards were deactivated and removed on May 31, 2023 due to a directive from the National Communications Authority (NCA).

The Minister of Communications announced the commencement of the re-registration of all mobile SIM cards on October 1, 2021.

The exercise was expected to last for six months but was extended several times for tangible challenges faced by SIM card users. 

Government on February 14, 2023, disclosed that a total of twenty-five million, one hundred and fifty thousand, five hundred and twenty-two SIM cards had been successfully registered as of February 9, 2023, and also encouraged the public to comply with the registration timelines.