Ghana’s SIM registration database has not been compromised in any way, director-general of the National Communications Authority, Mr Joe Anokye, has said.

“It is important to note that Ghana now has a SIM database that has integrity," he told journalists at a press conference in Accra on Wednesday, 26 April 2023.

“Every active registered SIM in the current SIM registration database can be traced to a unique Ghana card", he said, adding: "We can now state that Ghana has a single central SIM register as mandated by Executive Instrument 63, 2020.”

"We wish to assure the general public that the SIM database has not been breached," Mr Anokye said.

"In the first place, there has been no unauthorised access to the SIM registration database", he noted, stressing: "The identified abuses of the stage one process, which have been resolved, do not amount to unauthorised access to the SIM registration database."

Register SIMs by 31 May or get deactivated – NCA warns 11 million subscribers

Meanwhile, the NCA has warned that some 11 million mobile phone users who are still yet to register their SIM cards have up to the end of May 2023 to do so or get their numbers deactivated.

The affected cards include those owned by subscribers (diplomats, refugees, Ghanaians on duty outside the jurisdiction, partly-registered SIMs, subscribers with Ghana card and those without Ghana card) who were exempted from the registration exercise.

Mr Anokye told journalists: "One of the things to note is that active mass SIM registration for existing SIMs is coming to a close and, as mentioned earlier, we have about 11 million SIMs which are yet to begin the registration process."

"These subscribers have up to the end of May 2023 to complete their SIM registration or have their SIMs deactivated from the network,” Mr Anokye warned.

Concerning its directive to MTN to suspend its data zone service, Mr Anokye said the telco giant violated some regulations as a significant market player.

“MTN should not charge lower for voice, SMS, and data. MTN should not charge off-net calls. MTN has, so far, been in compliance with the directive. However, in January 2023, the NCA took notice of MTN data zone bundle, the 24-hour data bundle for the various data allocations. Some market players raised concerns. NCA engaged MTN and reviewed the product. We realised that the MTN data bundle was the lowest on the market and in violation of the directive. It was directed to discontinue the service,” Mr Anokye explained.