Non-Resident Ghanaians Can Use Passport To Register Their SIM Cards – Ursula Owusu

The Ministry of Communication and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu has announced that Ghanaians living abroad can use their passports to complete the SIM card registration process.

This follows the extension of deadline for SIM card re-registrations to September 30, 2022.

The postponement of the deadline is to enable mobile telephone subscribers complete the re-registration process.

Briefing the press on July 31, 2022 the Minister for Communication and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful announced that Ghanaians in the diaspora can use their passports to register their SIMs.

“Non-resident Ghanaians who do not have the Ghana card can use their passports to complete the process but will be required to update their details with the Ghana card once they acquire it. They have up till December 2022 to do so. I urge them to comply with these directives and to contact the NCA if they have any peculiar challenges.”

“Ghanaians on official assignment outside the country or students on  scholarships who cannot acquire the Ghana card by December should contact the NCA.”

“Special provision has already been made for members of the diplomatic corps in consultation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and regional Integration and they have been notified,” the Minister indicated.

She has also stated that the Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) commenced registration a week ago and 2% of their subscribers have been able to register their SIM as of Friday, July 29, 2022.

“The BWAs commenced registration barely a week ago and have only been able to register just about 2% of their subscribers as at Friday 29th July. Many data SIMS have also not been registered and my information is that their owners were not aware they also needed to be registered,” she stated.

The Minister has also affirmed that the National Identification Authority (NIA) has registered close to 17 million persons out of which more than 15 million cards have been issued to the registered individuals.

She said, “The NIA has not been able to issue all eligible persons with the Ghana Card. As at Thursday July 21, 2022, 16,969,034 individuals have registered for the Ghana Card, with about 16,535,623 cards printed. 15,702,719 cards have been issued whereas some 832,904 cards have not been distributed or collected.”

She has also urged the Ghana Airports Company to work with Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to provide adequate places for the acquisition of SIMS at the airport as all visitors in Ghana are permitted to acquire SIMS with their passports.

“All visitors to Ghana can now acquire SIMS with their passports, and I encourage the Ghana Airports Company to work with MNOs to provide adequate venues for the acquisition of SIMS at the airport. As indicated earlier, these will be valid for 3 months and if they want to use them for a longer period, they must acquire the non-citizen ID card to validate their SIMs. MNOS must provision their systems to send notifications to this category of SIMs,” she encouraged.