By Damali Mukhaye
Government has directed the Uganda Communications Commission to extend the deadline for the sim card re-registration exercise up to May 19th.
Document from the prime minister’s office
In a letter dated April 19th addressed to the UCC boss Godfrey Mutabazi, the Prime Minister Dr Ruhakana Rugunda says government has reviewed the timelines and taken a decision to have the ongoing sim card verification exercise extended to 19th May 2017.
UCC had earlier directed all telecommunications service providers to verify all their subscribers’ sim card details using National IDs within 7 days, saying that all those whose details will not have been updated by tomorrow would have their sim cards deactivated.
This has prompted the High Court dismiss a petition by Rights Trumpet Ltd that sought to block the 7-day ultimatum issued by the communications regulator.
Several groups including the Uganda Law Society, Civil Society organizations and a section of the Members of Parliament had also earlier opposed the timeline given by UCC arguing that it was too short to register all the 22 million people phone subscribers.
Meanwhile, the April 20th deadline for the sim card verification exercise has put prompted hundreds of Ugandans to flock registration centers to pick their national IDs.
One of the centers is the National Identification and Registration Authority offices at Kololo airstrip.
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