The National Chairperson of Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) Lawrence Okae has called for unconditional extension of the SIM card registration process by at least two months.
According to Mr. Okae, the directive by Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) to have all SIM cards registered in seven days had caused unnecessary confusion in the public, with many complaining that people use only their National Identity Cards for registration.
“The directive has raised tension among Ugandans without national IDs because it is the only document that is required for one to re-register his or her SIM card,” Okae said, before ‘advising government to think out of the box’.
“The party takes this as unfairness because most of the Ugandans have not been considered; a good example is of those abroad; most of them have not yet received their national IDs. Due to hectic nature of registration, most of them went unregistered,” Mr. Okae said, and urged the UCC to consider allowing other identification documents like Passports and Driving Permits for registration.
Last week the UCC directed all telecom companies to disconnect all subscribers whose SIM cards will not registered by tomorrow, Thursday April, 20.
