The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) yesterday confirmed that there will be no extension of SIM card registration after the 31st August deadline. After this date, all the unregistered SIM cards will be disconnected.
In May this year The Commission issued a 90-day extension of the deadline.
Godfrey Mutabazi, the Commission’s Executive Director said that the regulatory body had given operators and telecommunications subscribers’ sufficient time.
The Minister for Security, Mululi Mukasa said that there are over 16 million SIM cards that still have to be registered ahead of the deadline.
On the closure of the exercise, Minister Mukasa said, “that means you cannot make a call, you will not be called, you cannot send or receive an sms.”
He added that the SIM registration exercise was for the good of the people as it is meant to protect them from Cyber crimes and offer them protection from fraud especially mobile money operations.
“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,”
Information available on the UCC website explains that the SIM card registration process has been conducted to assist mobile service providers to know their customers better, to support law enforcement agencies identify SIM card owners and track criminals using this resource for illegal activities.
Uganda is the last of the East African countries to finish the SIM registration exercise.
