No Extension for SIM Card Registration – Mathe

Ishmael Mukubonda

The executive director in the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology Audrin Mathe has announced that there will be no extension for SIM card registration, and non-registered cards will be blocked for three months.

He made these remarks during a media briefing at the government information centre on Friday.

The deadline for SIM card registration is 31 December 2023.

“As for the banks, they were aware of the SIM card registration since the conception of the registration process two years ago. The banks should have not waited up until two weeks prior to the conclusion of the registration process,” he said, referencing recent concerns raised by local banks about the process.

At the same event, Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTC) Head of Corporate Legal Services Patience Kanalelo said to date, 40% of subscribers have successfully registered their SIM cards.

“MTC has employed staff at all its branches to help curb the challenges of service delivery. We are also introducing online registration, which commences next Monday. All smartphone users will be able to register via this online registration platform,” she added.

Kanalelo observed that the platform will enable a household to register their SIM cards with one available smartphone.

Individuals whose SIM cards are deactivated will, amongst others, not receive any bank notifications.

“However, individuals whose SIM cards are deactivated will be able to register their SIM cards during the three months to redeem their respective cell phone numbers, otherwise deactivated numbers will be issued to new users,” she continued.

At the same briefing, Telecom Namibia’s chief executive officer Stanley Shanapinda said they have made additional efforts to assist settlements without teleshops during the registration process. Telecom registered 201 126 customers in the past week alone.

“We do foresee that there will be challenges in terms of not everyone being able to register. Hence, we will extend our opening hours as from today to accommodate more registrations across our 23 Teleshops countrywide. We will also deploy students in the said respective areas. We would need paid assistance from you, and these announcements will be made in due time,” he added.

– Nampa