• Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Donate
  • Login
Watchdog Uganda
  • Home
  • News
    • National
    • Politics
    • World News
    • Media Outreach Newswire
    • Africa News
    • Tourism
    • Community News
    • Luganda
    • Sports
      • Football
      • Motorsport
  • Op-Ed
    • #Out2Lunch
    • Conversations with
    • Politics
    • Relationships
  • Business
    • Agriculture
    • CEOs & Entrepreneurs,
    • Companies
    • Finance
    • Products
    • RealEstate
    • Technology
  • Entertainment
    • Lifestyle
  • People
    • Showbiz
      • Salon Mag
  • Special Report
    • Education
    • Voices
  • Reviews
    • Products
    • Events
    • Hotels
    • Restaurants
    • Places
  • WD-TV
  • Donate
  • China News
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • National
    • Politics
    • World News
    • Media Outreach Newswire
    • Africa News
    • Tourism
    • Community News
    • Luganda
    • Sports
      • Football
      • Motorsport
  • Op-Ed
    • #Out2Lunch
    • Conversations with
    • Politics
    • Relationships
  • Business
    • Agriculture
    • CEOs & Entrepreneurs,
    • Companies
    • Finance
    • Products
    • RealEstate
    • Technology
  • Entertainment
    • Lifestyle
  • People
    • Showbiz
      • Salon Mag
  • Special Report
    • Education
    • Voices
  • Reviews
    • Products
    • Events
    • Hotels
    • Restaurants
    • Places
  • WD-TV
  • Donate
  • China News
No Result
View All Result
Watchdog Uganda
No Result
View All Result

Minister Tumwebaze’s full statement on the progress of SIM card verification

Mulema Najib by Mulema Najib
8 years ago
in News
1 0

Warning: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /home/90/81/2028190/web/wp-content/themes/jnews/class/Image/ImageNormalLoad.php on line 70

Warning: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /home/90/81/2028190/web/wp-content/themes/jnews/class/Image/ImageNormalLoad.php on line 73
ShareTweetSendShare

Progress on the SIM card Validation/Verification exercise

As a national security measure, government embarked on an exercise of ensuring that every SIM card of an individual gets validated and verified for purposes of ensuring secure and safer communications. For that matter, instructions were given to all telecom companies through the regulator (UCC) to enforce the exercise. The same way banks embarked on their KYC (Know Your Customer) principle, same should apply to the telecom sector for SIM card holders.

The enactment of the Registration of Persons Act 2015 makes the national ID a mandatory document to use for any form of registration services, SIM card registration inclusive. This is explained in sections 65 (1) (a -l) and 66 (1) and (2) that elaborate on the use of information in the register and Mandatory use of National ID cards respectively. Therefore the requirement to validate and verify SIM CARDS using the National Identity Card is grounded in law. The Chief legal advisor of government (Attorney General) correctly advised.

The overall objective of this exercise is purely to provide national security safeguards. While mobile phone telecommunications is one of the most commonly used methods of communication among citizens and has greatly revolutionized the way businesses are run, negative elements have also taken advantage of the same means of communication to plan, coordinate, finance and execute their criminal activities with ease and sophistication.
The practice for the criminals has been to acquire new Sim Cards that are either unregistered or fraudulently registered with wrong and falsified identities for use in the execution of their criminal operations and thereafter discard them so that they are not traced. The sustainable solution to this criminality is to ensure that all SIM cards and their users are properly registered using the correct identities. Thus the need for Verification and validation even for sim cards in use.

While the government had set the first deadline a month ago, it was found prudent to give an extension of one month so as to enable many Ugandans that had registered for the national IDs but had not collected them.
I am glad to report that good progress has been registered with many Ugandans responding positively. From UCC records submissions from telecoms stand at 92% of all active SIM cards in the country.

I would therefore like to take this opportunity to thank all Ugandans that took heed of this clarion call and verified their SIM cards.

Enforcement of the deadline and measures taken by government to address concerns of Parliament and citizens
The deadline of 19th May set by government will be enforced at Midnight. This is therefore to confirm that the deadline stands and all unregistered, unverified and un-validated SIM cards will be switched off initially for voice communications. In other words the holders of those cards will not be able to receive or make calls.
As a measure however, to mitigate loss of money for those with Mobile Money deposits, the service will not be switched off for the unregistered, unverified and un-validated SIM cards. A transition period will be allowed for those Mobile Money customers to either withdraw their balances or transfer them to registered SIM cards or to their banks. While withdrawal or transfer of Mobile Money balances on unregistered/unverified numbers will be enabled, loading/depositing of more money will be disabled on the unverified cards.
Government would therefore like to assure the citizens and Honorable Members of Parliament that no funds deposited on Mobile Money will be lost in this exercise. The regulator, UCC has been instructed by government to inform all the telecom operators accordingly.
Another measure taken by government to ease the registration, verification and validation process for citizens as demanded by Parliament and citizens, is for NIRA to allow new ID applicants whose IDs are still pending processing to use their application form numbers. Once they get their IDs, with the National Identification Number (NINs) then they can re-submit online using the USSD code *197#

After the deadline, is there any other opportunity to verify/validate SIM cards?
While the switch off will disable voice communication on the affected SIM cards, the exercise of verification continues just as registration of citizens is continuous. Any citizen with the requisite registration/verification documents will then approach their service provider to either register for any new SIM card or verify their old but switched off cards.
Citizens can contact NIRA at their district offices. In addition UCC has allocated NIRA a short code *216# to enable citizens to know the status of their application process.
Let us all be vigilant since national security is for the good of all of us.

Frank K. Tumwebaze (MP)
MINISTER OF ICT AND NATIONAL GUIDANCE


Do you have a story in your community or an opinion to share with us: Email us at editorial@watchdoguganda.com
ShareTweetSendShare

Related Posts

National

President Museveni flags off construction of key Kayunga- Galiraya Road to link Northern and Central Uganda 

11th July 2025 at 19:32
Dr. Yona Baguma
News

NARO Director General, Dr. Yona Baguma, Animates CPA Forum with Breakthroughs in Agricultural Research

11th July 2025 at 17:42
News

Isaiah Katumwa to serenade fans at 30th anniversary fete

11th July 2025 at 17:29
Next Post

Photos: Singer King Saha balloons South Africa based sugar mummy

  • Prostitution in Uganda- Courtesy Photo

    10 dangerous hotspots known for prostitutes in Kampala

    1127 shares
    Share 451 Tweet 282
  • Silent Billionaire Bosco Muwonge Buys Mukwano Arcade at UGX 250 Billion Cash Down

    51 shares
    Share 20 Tweet 13
  • Who is Bosco Muwonge, Uganda’s elusive real estate billionaire?

    38 shares
    Share 15 Tweet 10
  • LIST: New salary structure for civil servants starting July 2020 out; scientists, lecturers get juicy pay rise

    2289 shares
    Share 916 Tweet 572
  • Uganda’s Billionaires 2025: Once Again Sudhir Ruparelia Leads a Resilient Pack

    49 shares
    Share 20 Tweet 12
Facebook Twitter

Contact Information

Watchdog Uganda is a portal for solution journalism, trending news plus cutting edge commentaries in the fields of politics, security, business, tourism, entertainment, technology, agriculture, climate change, environment, public health et al. We also give preference to Ugandan community news and topical discussions. The portal also publishes community news and topical discussions.

Email: editorial@watchdoguganda.com
To Advertise:Click here

Latest News

President Museveni flags off construction of key Kayunga- Galiraya Road to link Northern and Central Uganda 

11th July 2025 at 19:32
Mashable is a global, multi-platform media and entertainment company For more queries and news contact us on this Email: info@mashablepartners.com

Check out

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Minister Muruli Mukasa

LIST: New salary structure for civil servants starting July 2020 out; scientists, lecturers get juicy pay rise

24th May 2020 at 10:45
Pregnant woman

Shock as 17-year old boy impregnates his two sisters during Covid-19 lockdown 

17th June 2020 at 08:17
Sudhir Ruparelia is the undisputed king of Kampala

Billionaire Sudhir’s wisdom on how to invest in real estate

0

How a boy’s destiny turned from cotton grower to communications guru

0

President Museveni flags off construction of key Kayunga- Galiraya Road to link Northern and Central Uganda 

11th July 2025 at 19:32
Dr. Yona Baguma

NARO Director General, Dr. Yona Baguma, Animates CPA Forum with Breakthroughs in Agricultural Research

11th July 2025 at 17:42

© 2025 Watchdog Uganda

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • National
    • Politics
    • World News
    • Media Outreach Newswire
    • Africa News
    • Tourism
    • Community News
    • Luganda
    • Sports
      • Football
      • Motorsport
  • Op-Ed
    • #Out2Lunch
    • Conversations with
    • Politics
    • Relationships
  • Business
    • Agriculture
    • CEOs & Entrepreneurs,
    • Companies
    • Finance
    • Products
    • RealEstate
    • Technology
  • Entertainment
    • Lifestyle
  • People
    • Showbiz
      • Salon Mag
  • Special Report
    • Education
    • Voices
  • Reviews
    • Products
    • Events
    • Hotels
    • Restaurants
    • Places
  • WD-TV
  • Donate
  • China News

© 2025 Watchdog Uganda