The Uganda Communications Commission has announced that the SIM card registration exercise is ending on Aug. 31 and all unregistered sim cards will be deactivated. “I will not call you again for a press conference on this matter,” The Commission’s Executive Director, Godfrey Mutabazi said, adding there is no extension of the exercise this time round. The Commission gave operators and telecom subscribers an extension of 90 days in May this year, a month when the official registration process was to end.
“We cannot do this for years. We believe the time we gave to operators and subscribers was enough,” Mutabazi added. Mululi Mukasa, the Minister for Security in the Ugandan Cabinet, officiated at the press briefing to mark the closure of the exercise at UCC headquarters in Kampala on Aug. 26. “That means you cannot make a call, you will not be called, you cannot send or receive sms,” the minister said.
Mutabazi said 8% of the total sim cards which are over 16 million are still unregistered a head of the official deadline. “Now it is up to the customer and telecom operators to rectify all pending or technical issues about the sim card registration process in a week’s time,” he said.
“We believe the 92% who have registered have made the exercise a success,” Mukasa said, adding Uganda needed to move at the same pace with Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania who had already completed the exercise. Uganda has five major telecom operators including MTN Uganda, Uganda telecom, Airtel, Warid and Orange.
The details captured while registering sim cards will help reduce SIM card related crimes which include hate messages, kidnappings, fraud in mobile money and many others.
