Mr Selorm Adadevoh, the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, has reassured mobile phone subscribers that they will not lose their mobile money (momo) accounts if they fail to re-register their SIM cards and subsequently lose their phone numbers.
Mr Adadevoh affirmed that affected subscribers will receive guidelines on the necessary steps to access their funds at a later time. Today, May 31, 2023, marks the deadline for the SIM card re-registration exercise.
During a discussion with journalists in Accra, Mr Adadevoh explained that while the deactivated SIM cards would render the associated accounts dormant, customers would still be able to retrieve their funds with the appropriate identification and procedures.
“We do have a provision in the Payment System and Services Act about how to treat funds that have not been accessed, essentially will be treated as dormant funds, and you can redeem them at some point in time with the right identification and processes,” He said.
He emphasized that the Payment System and Services Act includes provisions on how to handle funds that have not been accessed, ensuring that customers can redeem their dormant funds in due course.
Concerns have been raised by some mobile phone subscribers who have yet to register their SIM cards, as they are unsure about the fate of their mobile money wallets if they fail to meet the re-registration deadline and permanently lose their phone numbers.
While the National Communications Authority (NCA) and the Ministry of Communications have not yet provided specific information, subscribers have expressed confidence that their funds will remain secure as long as there is evidence of funds in their Momo accounts.
About the sim registration exercise
The Minister of Communications, Ursula Owusu Akuful announced the commencement of the registration of all mobile sim cards on October 1, 2021.
The exercise was expected to have lasted for six months but was extended several times for tangible challenges faced by sim card users.
The government on February 14, 2023, revealed that a total of 25 million One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Five Hundred and 22 sim cards have been registered successfully as of February 9, 2023.
