The National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) has handed over the long awaited SIM card reading machines to the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) which will in return distribute them to telecom companies.
#happeningnow at UCC House,Bugolobi @NIRA_Ug hands over card readers to the Commission which will then be distributed to the #telecos pic.twitter.com/i9ciPWz3K9
— UCCat20 (@UCC_Official) April 13, 2018
The registration authority has been under fire about the tedious process one has to go through to have their SIM card registered or replaced after the exercises were halted following loopholes criminals took advantage of.
This came after a series of directives from the telecoms regulator on not only banning the selling of airtime scratch cards on streets but also the issuance of new sim cards by telecom operators after the technology to verify people’s personal data with NIRA’s databases wasn’t in place.
Recommendations were made to halt the SIM card issuance process until the technology is in place to enhance it. So far the process has faced back clash from the public owing to the many steps required by one to have a new sim card and this new new move by NIRA, will help telecom companies verify whether the applicant of the SIM card is the rightful owner of the personal details submitted. We can only hope it smoothens the previously shared process that caused an uproar on social media.
