NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 8 – Communications Authority Director General Ezra Chiloba says mobile operators will facilitate subscribers with a means of verifying whether they are duly registered or not.
Chiloba stated that the decision was arrived at following a meeting with the operators ahead of the April 15 deadline.
“How do we know that you are duly registered? By dialing *106# you can know which numbers are registered in your name.”
According to the CA boss, “looking at the situation across the currently, the compliance levels on SIM card registration are not looking good.”
While stating that the concerns raised by people on the process are legitimate, he urged Kenyans to “be honest whether we understand what is at stake. Ensure that by 15th April 2022 your SIM card is duly registered.”
He indicated that “The major complaint we have had is the requirement of photo. The 2015 regulations don’t anticipate we shall take your photo.”
CA had warned that mobile phone subscribers who fail to register their details with their respective telecommunication service providers by April 15 will face disconnection.
Chiloba stated that the move is to enforce the SIM card registration regulations of 2015 and is aimed at combating cybercrime and fraud in the digital space.
He said the Communication Authority will not extend the ongoing SIM card registration deadline and urged unregistered mobile subscribers to do so in the remaining days.
He asked all mobile network operators to speed up the data cleanup exercise and said that no more time will be added upon the expiry of the grace period noting that unregistered sim cards have security implications.
“There would be no extension so those still dragging their feet should wake up to the reality and register with their respective telecom service providers or face permanent deactivation,” he said.
The CA DG said there would be no unregistered SIM cards on any of the telcom service providers that would be in operation beyond April 15.
“We want before the end of April all the networks to be cleaned up by deactivating all unregistered and improperly registered SIM cards from the networks,” said Chiloba.
