[File photo] Customers registering their SIM cards at Temporary Registration point at Madina market in Accra
[File photo] Customers registering their SIM cards at Temporary Registration point at Madina market in Accra

Some upset customers whose SIM cards and Momo accounts have been blocked since Thursday have besieged the MTN office at Darkumam Junction in Accra.

They said they could not access any of the services of MTN and were worried.

This comes after Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Minister of Communications, announced that all unregistered SIM cards will be deactivated by November 30, 2022.

A total of 18.9 million (18,930,664) SIM Cards have been fully registered as of October 4, 2022, in accordance with the SIM Registration directives and the process, which commenced on October 1, 2021.


Some customers failed to meet the deadline, which was extended twice.

At 9:00 am when the Ghana News Agency (GNA) visited the MTN office, it was crowded with customers demanding for it to be opened to them by the workers who had locked themselves in since they arrived to work.

A customer, who pleaded anonymity, alleged that some of the customers had been at the office as early as 1:00 but the workers walked past them and entered the office.

She said some of the workers came out later and asked them to form a queue so they could attend to them but the customers refused because they suspected mischief.

“If it was not for mischief they would have opened the office before 9:00 am but it is over 10:00 am and they have not opened the office,” she said.

Another young customer said some of the workers who had come out told them that nothing could be done about the blocked SIMs at that moment.

A police officer, who the GNA learned was detailed there, tried to control the crowd until another one who said he was from the headquarters when he addressed the crowd, arrived.

One of the workers came out to talk to the customers and assured them that they would attend to those who wanted to obtain new SIM cards but issues of blocked SIMs would be dealt with later.

After the announcement, the policemen ensured that the customers were in a queue to be attended to.

SIM card registration is part of measures to reduce SIM-related fraud in the country.