Namibia extends SIM registration deadline to March

Namibians have three more months to register their SIM cards after the government announced an extension to the mandatory registration deadline.

Local mobile users previously had until December 31, 2023, to register their SIM cards but Namibia's Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Dr Peya Mushelenga, announced last week that the deadline would move to March 31, 2024.

Mushelenga said that as of December 27, 2023, only 62.5% of Namibia's 2.38 million active SIM card users had registered their SIMs "despite sufficient time provide to consumers for this critical process since June 2022".

"The registration of SIM cards is not an open-ended process. Cards not registered by the deadline will be suspended, resulting in unintended consequences. I urge all subscribers who have not yet done so to use the grace period," the minister said in a published statement.

Namibia's SIM card registration drive began in mid-2022 and the government required all SIM cards to be linked to a Namibian ID, passport, or any other official identity document issued by the Namibian government or a foreign country with the aim of finalizing the process by the end of 2023.

There were some complaints that local operators were also asking users to register with their biometric data, but the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN) later advised that biometric data capture is not required for SIM registration, though users can still voluntarily share biometric information.

Reasons behind SIM registrations

Minister Mushelenga said the Namibian government had adopted the SIM registration policy to mitigate security concerns, address crime and enable the application of digital services.

"The SIM Registration will also be used to manage mobile fraud, act as a tool for e-service rollout and be an instrument that eases and enables digital surveillance and interception as part of investigations of criminal offences and counter-terrorism efforts," he added.

Namibian mobile users are required to link their SIM cards to an official identity document, but biometric data capture is not mandatory. (Source: Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik)

Namibia joined over 185 other countries across the world that have already implemented mandatory SIM card registration processes including Lesotho, Ghana and Mauritania.

Mushelenga said that SIM registration was required by the International Telecommunications Union, a United Nations Agency of which Namibia is a member.

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*Top image source: Image by Freepik.

— Paula Gilbert, Editor, Connecting Africa