Establishment of the Central Equipment Identity Registry – Ursula

The Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful in a press announced that Central Equipment Identity Registry technology has been developed to reduce the influx of smuggling and counterfeit mobile devices.

Mrs. Ursula said that to address the challenge of the smuggling and trade in counterfeit, stolen, and substandard mobile devices, and increase the potential for enhanced revenues, technology has been developed to ensure that these devices only function when they enter the country through legal means.

“The Central Equipment Identity Registry (CEIR) records all devices in the country and reduces the influx of smuggling and counterfeit mobile devices”, she stated.

She says each operator has an Equipment Identity Registry (EIR) which is a database that contains all the IMEI numbers of the handsets of all the subscribers on a particular cellular network. She noted that the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) is a unique identity code, which is given to all Global System for Mobile (GSM) devices.

“When the mobile device is connected to a particular network, the MSC requests the IMEI of that mobile device, and then it is sent to the EIR for the further authorization process. Central Equipment Identity Registry (CEIR) is a central EIR database that integrates IMEI numbers of EIR of all the networks. As the information is stored in the Central Equipment Identity Registry (CEIR), it will be periodically updated in the EIR of all the networks”, she said.

The Ghana Central Equipment Identity Registry (CEIR), she revealed, will be connected to the global database (GSMA database) to access the IMEI of approved and blacklisted devices. This will ensure that mobile devices entering the country are properly authenticated. It will also be connected to the databases of all mobile network operators in Ghana, to synchronize and update data of the blacklisted and whitelisted devices in Ghana.

“This will ensure that only approved mobile devices recognized by the CEIR would function in Ghana. It will generate and store a list of all backlisted and whitelisted devices in our own repository”, Minister stated.

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Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful explained further that it will require that the IMEI of the device will be captured on the CEIR database during declaration. The captured information will synchronize with the GSMA database and confirm the standard and ownership status of the device. Compliance with customs duty payment will be ensured during the declaration process.

The government, she says has initiated good digitalization initiatives and innovations in Ghana and expanding the focus beyond access by implementing programs and plans that focus on the widespread secure adoption and usage of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT’s).