More than one million network subscribers will have their unregistered SIM cards deactivated after September 30, 2022, as they are without a Ghana card, the

sole identification document for the ongoing SIM registration exercise.

The Independent Ghana has arrived at this conclusion following careful analysis of statements by relevant stakeholders in the communication sector who are to

ensure the smooth running of the SIM registration exercise.

The institutions involved in this analysis are the National Identification Authority (NIA), the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, and the National Communications Authority (NCA).

The NIA is responsible for the issuance of the Ghana card and, according to the authority, it will not be able to issue all the Ghana cards needed to enable network subscribers to register their SIM cards.

On September 9, 2022, the Director of Corporate Affairs at the NIA, Dr Abudu Abdul Ganiyu,  told JoyNews that NIA has issued 15,859,251 Ghana cards and is yet to print 528,360 cards, as well as issue 763,877 cards. In total, 1,292,237 Ghana cards are yet to be received.

A week after his comment, the Executive Secretary of the Authority, Professor Kenneth Agyeman Attafuah, while addressing the press on the provision of Ghana cards ahead of the September 30th deadline, said “we cannot do that.” “There is no way that the NIA can register those people. It is technically, physically impossible. We had said way back in March that it was impossible. I have said it is like expecting a maiden to make a baby every three months,” he said.

Professor Kenneth Agyeman Attafuah explained that the NIA will not be able to provide all eligible Ghanaians with their Ghana cards owing to a lack of officers at its registration centres. “Today, there is only one office in a district. At the 200 registration centres, you may have about 16 NIA officials serving the people.

Today, there is only one office per district, and there are four people in that district office. The maximum is five at the regional offices. We augment the staff

numbers with national service personnel,” he said.

Weeks before the NIA made this revelation, the Ministry of Communications and Digitalization for the second time extended the SIM card registration

deadline from July 31 to September 30.

The exercise was extended because of challenges involved in the issuance of the Ghana card, Communications Minister Ursula Owusu-Ekuful admitted on July

31, 2022, in a press briefing. Days after the extension, it emerged that the number of people who trooped to the registration centres to register their SIM cards

had plummeted.

According to figures from the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, the number of subscribers re-registering their SIM cards fell to 5,861 on August 19, 2022, from about 235,000 recorded on July 31, 2022, when the extension was announced. This represented a 98% decline. The data also showed that by August 1, 2022, the number of registrations fell to 62,715, compared with the 235,460 recorded on July 28, 2022.

The trend continued until it dropped further to 5,861 by August 19th, 2022. Despite the decline in numbers and the NIA’s inability to provide all Ghana Cards, the NCA and the Communications Ministry have made no move to extend the registration deadline to ensure the affected Ghanaians are not disadvantaged.

Even though the NCA has been dragged to court, the Authority is yet to rescind its decision and provide the NIA more time to provide citizens with their Ghana

cards. Galamsey: 12 excavators seized; one arrested in Ashanti region Effects of blocked SIM cards on the economy should the NCA block SIM cards after September 30, as stated earlier, the government risks losing some of the taxes it generates from citizens who make use of voice and data services.

A communication service tax of 5% is levied on charges payable by both individual and corporate users of electronic communication services (ECS) provided by

service providers other than private electronic communication services.

Government will lose a large sum of money it would have generated from network service providers through the over one million network subscribers who have not registered their SIM cards. Also, network service providers will lose subscribers, thereby reducing their revenue. The assertion is that a number of Ghanaians yet to retrieve their Ghana cards engage in mobile money transactions. Government is able to generate revenue through its electronic transaction levy (e-levy) of 1.5% on mobile money transactions above the GHS100 threshold.

The revenue generated from this tax will decline as over one million network subscribers will be without an active SIM card.