She described the act as "evil corruption" which will soon be found out by authorities.
Addressing journalists at a press briefing on July 31, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful said, “I have also been informed that some people who have obtained quick loans from their service providers have decided not to register those SIMs to avoid repaying the loans. That is evil corruption and you will be found out.”
Meanwhile, the Communications Minister has announced an extension to the SIM registration exercise to September 30, 2022.
She explained the extension had become necessary owing to the teething challenges for registrants who are yet to be issued or acquire their national identification cards.
To address long queues associated with the exercise, the minister said registrants could now expedite the registration process through a self-service application.
The mobile application is expected to be available in the coming week and could be accessed either via Android or IOS platforms.
The SIM card registration via the app will however attract a charge of GH¢5.
Background
The SIM card registration exercise began on 31st October 2021 and was expected to end on 31st March 2022 but as of 17th March, over 14 million SIM cards had been linked to the Ghana Card with over 10 million Bio-Captures conducted and 99,445 new SIMs registered.
Due to a number of factors including the fact that over 7.5 million citizens and residents were yet to obtain Ghana Cards to enable them register their SIM cards, it was clear the deadline for completion of the registration of the remaining active SIM cards could not be met.
As a result, the ministry extended the deadline to July 31, 2022.
However, reports from multiple media outlets including GhanaWeb indicated that as of Saturday, July 30, thousands have either not registered their Ghana Card or SIM cards.
This led to several calls on the government and the ministry to cause an extension to the July 31 deadline.
MA/BB
