The Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) has ordered all Kenyan mobile providers to ensure all of their subscribers re-register their SIMs within 60 days or pay a fine of up to 0.5% of their yearly gross revenue.
Following a directive from the Communications Authority in February, Kenyan operators asked their customers to re-register their sim cards in order to update their personal information.
The telcos threatened to disconnect the lines of customers who didn’t comply by the new deadline—April 15 2022—and they actually did. Millions of SIM cards remained unregistered – even after a 6-month extension of the deadline – and some of them were disconnected by the operators.
The telcos now have 60 additional days from the CA to guarantee complete compliance. It expects mobile providers to refuse service to unregistered subscribers in order to foster compliance.
The regulator currently reports that 93% of Safaricom users and 91% of Airtel users have updated their registrations, but it is still determining Telkom’s compliance.
The CA will determine each telco’s compliance level again after 60 days, and any telco with less than 100% compliance will pay a fine of up to 0.5% of their annual gross revenue.
Ghana
Meanwhile, in Ghana, owners of some 23.8 million active SIM cards have been given up to October ending to re-register or complete the re-registration process or those SIMs will be blocked progressively. This was after three deadline extension.
The number comprises of 10 million partially registered SIM cards and 13.8 million completely unregistered ones.
