Samuel Nartey George, MP, Ningo-Prampram, has been given tutorials as to how Ghanaians in Ghana can use their passport to register for their SIM cards without going to queue for Ghana Card.
The government of Ghana has introduced a self-service SIM Registration App as part of efforts to deal with some challenges associated with the ongoing SIM re-registration exercise.
Explaining how Ghanaians can use their passport to register their SIM cards via the App, the member of Parliament's Communications Committee explained that, "[the minister has said] if you are a foreigner entering Ghana, at the airport, you can use your passport to register a SIM card and have the card for three months but if you are going to be in Ghana beyond the three months, you then have to get the Ghana Card [and use in registering your SIM].
"But for Ghanaians, who are residents outside of Ghana and you didn’t get the Ghana Card before leaving and you would not come to Ghana within the next three months, the minister says you can use the App to register your SIM card using your passport. Someone asked me how would they know that I am outside the country if I go on the App and I said it is because of the IP [Internet Protocol address] but because we are doing the Lord’s work, [I’ll show people how they can use the passport to register in Ghana here]."
"In doing the Lord’s work for my constituents who have been deprived of the opportunity of registering their SIM cards because they don’t have Ghana Card, they should download the App but before that, they should, first of all, download the VPN [Virtual Private Network] and put themselves in a foreign country and then use your passport to register the SIM cards," Sam Nartey George said on Metro TV's 'Good Morning Ghana' programme, August 2, 2022.
SIM registration timeline
The SIM re-registration commenced on October 1, 2021.
The six-month exercise which was expected to end on March 31, 2022, was extended by another 4 months to July 31, 2022.
That extension was granted to enable over 7.5 million Ghanaians and residents who had not obtained Ghana Cards at the time to register their SIM.
Current SIM Registration Statistics
The Minister said as of July 20, 2022, the total number of Voice SIMs stood at 41, 979,398. Out of this number, 15,395,607 had linked their Ghana Card to their sim cards.
Samuel Nartey George