2 years ago, Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) ignited a force to have each and every SIMCARD holder in Uganda verify their identity using the NIRA issued National ID cards. The exercise was welcomed with emerse registrations to a point that whoever hadn’t verified their NIN could neither make calls nor receive off any network.
Well, the SIM card registration resurrected last week and UCC now requires selected subscribers to reverify their SIMcards. For instance, If you receive a message like “Y’ello, You have more than one number registered under your NIN. Please visit any Airtel Shop with your National ID to confirm them” from your telco, then you’re one of the subscribers who will face a tough penalty once the registered sim cards are not re-verified
The UCC penalty and who qualifies to reverify
UCC previously inked a revocation policy of all SIM services during the previous SIMcard registration exercise, the move garnered high traffic at registration points and everyone had their SIM card registered before the due date. But if you registered more than 1 card with your national ID number or a names mismatch on your with ur card, then you must reverify ownership of them all.
Unverifie SIMcards that got a notification message to review active lines on one NIN are required to visit a service center or else all the lines will be blocked from accessing any telco services
During a TV interview with the commission’s spokesperson, Ibrahim Bbosa. The Uganda communications act was referred to with section 56 providing 2 instances in which a user can be denied access to services, as refusal to reverify your SIMcard violates the section provoking a penalty in return.
“The Uganda Communications Acts under Section 56 provides two instances when you can be denied service: one is for non-payment of bills and the other is for a just cause. So, if after repeated requests for you to come and verify, to update your sim card registration, especially we also have people who sent in NINs before April 2018 and never update this through biometrics, those people are also required to come and update with the biometrics.” – Ibrahim Bbosa, UCC SpokesPerson
However, as the new UCC re-verification policy doesn’t affect each and every SIM card holder in Uganda, only notified multiple SIM card owners will be denied access to telecom services by their providers. So, this means only a minority of subscribers will face the penalties due to multiple SIM ownerships which are turning out to be fraud pots in Uganda.