The inevitable has finally happened. The Government of Uganda has decided to go ahead and implement the registration of all mobile phone sim cards in the country. A lot has been said about the feasibility of this scheme and whether it can work well in a country like Uganda.
For the uninitiated, Uganda is one of those countries with no National Identity Card system. People use different forms of identification like company IDs, passports, driving licenses, voters cards, personal IDs that anyone can buy and simply insert their photo, and some as trivial as a Letter from the Local Council Chairman.
For over five years, the National ID project was dogged by one scandal after another leaving it at the mercy of a lot of politicking and potentially selfish business interests. However, towards the close of 2010, a contract was signed with the Mühlbauer Technology Group from Germany. Controversial as the decision was, some headway was made and at the inauguration of the President after the elections in February 2011. The National ID Card project was officially launched by the President and his wife being, and they became the first to be officially registered.

Another unique aspect about Uganda is the fact that save for a few residential areas, we hardly have an address system that can be used to identify residences. One always has to use key landmarks to successfully direct a first time visitor to their home. Postal addresses are mainly held by businesses and few individuals have personal boxes.

Many phone users always had the impression that no form of registration would take place until we have a National ID in place. However, the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) has proved the wrong by deciding to push ahead with the project.

This has left many questioning how effective the process will be. With the liberty for one to submit various forms of documentation, it means that many could decide to fake identities especially those who have ill intentions.

According to Mr. Otunnu, the public relations officer of UCC, information to be gathered includes; Full Name, Residential Address, Business Address, Postal Address and an Identity Card Number. The process is going to be accorded six months after which it shall be expected that all users will have complied. With close to 13 million mobile phone subscribers currently, this is not an easy feat to achieve.

The regulator is using a multi-faceted approach to achieve this by carrying out consumer sensitization countrywide in conjunction with various consumer organisations and also plans to work hand in hand with the Telecoms providers in ensuring that they too effect this registration within their premises.

The Interception of Communications Act that was assented to last year was a pre-cursor to all this and that too stirred a lot of debate with many people complaining about the potential intrusion into their privacy and the desire by the Government to play the Big Brother role.

On another note, Uganda has lately been plagued by various scams being peddled using mobile phones with many users being conned of money in form of Airtime, Mobile Money transfers, kidnaps and even terrorism activities. A case in point were the July 11th 2010 bombings that were executed using the mobile phone network.

As the country joins Kenya and Tanzania that have already implemented the SIM registration process, it is hoped that this could also spur the quick implementation of the national ID system too.