A task team has been set up in Ghana to clamp down on activities of illegal SIM card operations in that country.

Ghana’s Criminal Investigations Department (CID) together with the National Communications Authority and various telcos have set up the task team, according to the Ghana News Agency (GNA).

GNA has reported that the West African nation is losing more than $19 million as a result of illegal SIM cards operations.

Police commissioner and director general of the CID, Prosper Kwame Agblor, said that in 2010 11 cases were reported to the police and that the task force arrested one suspect for illegal SIM card operations.

Agblor explained that the suspect had operated the service in the capital city of Accra for about 18 months and the total loss to the country and service providers amounted to $12 million.

Last month the task team conducted operations which resulted in the arrest of six operators, according to Agblor.

“Five GoIP (GSM Gateway for Voice over Internet Protocol) SIM card machines, three SIM card machines, six heavy duty batteries and one UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) inverter were seized from them,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ghana’s minister of communications Edward Omane Boamah expressed the same sentiments as the police commissioner.

Boamah said that necessary action should be taken against the illegal SIM card operators.

“Nobody and no corporate institution would be spared on this matter,” he warned.

Boamah urged the public and network operators to support the police to deal with the activities of illegal SIM card operations.