Information from the National Communication Authority (NCA) on the ongoing SIM re-registration process indicate that as of October 7, 2021, some 1,263,586 SIM cards had been linked to Ghana Cards.
That figure was recorded in just the first week of the SIM re-registration exercise, which will end on March 31, 2021.
It is however a far cry from the over 41.8 million active SIM cards captured in the August 2021 Mobile Cellular Subscription Report of the NCA.
Meanwhile, the National Identification Authority has also reported that over 15 million Ghanaians now own Ghana Cards.
At this pace, over the next 26 weeks, ending March 31, 2022, some over 32.85 million SIM cards would have been linked to Ghana Cards.
These are early days yet and the NCA in collaboration with the telcos, have put measures in place to expedite the process to ensure that by the close of the exercise in March next year, all active SIM cards would have been captured to avoid the deactivation.
Part of the measures include the drafting of the over 338,000 agents of the telcos across the country, to do the registration at the local level, so that SIM holders would not have to travel to the customer services shops of the telcos to register.
Currently, the telcos are doing the registration all by themselves, and the number turning out at their shops are creating long queues, of which some are turned away when working hours ends.
But with the agents, they tend to even work till night so they can register even more SIM cards.
The decision to include the telco agents was also to make it easier for the aged and physically challenges to register within their locality without having to travel long distances to telcos customer service shops.
SIM holders are required to dial *404# on their handsets and follow the prompts to link their SIMs to their Ghana Card, then they follow up to their respective service provider to complete the registration process.
Market share
Meanwhile, the 41,486,196 voice subscriptions recorded in August 2021 represent 132.03 per cent penetration against a population of 31,358,190.
Out of the total, market leader MTN holds 23,449,452, representing almost 57 per cent market share. Vodafone recorded 9,413,261 subscription, which represents some 22.86 per cent market share. AirtelTigo now holds 7,461,031 representing 18.12 per cent and Glo still trails with 845,326, which is 1.09 per cent market share.
