03 Jul 2024

As the mandatory SIM card registration closed on the last day of June, the Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority (BOCRA) indicated that it was happy with the registration outcome.

In an interview, the regulator’s head of broadcasting and corporate communications, Ms Masego Jeremiah, indicated that they managed to achieve 86 per cent registration.

“Ideally, we would have wanted to achieve a 100 per cent registration, where every SIM card is registered, but still this is a commendable mark as that 86 per cent reflects a total of 4 379 477 SIM cards,” she said.

On the high number of SIM cards registered against a national population of just over 2 million, Ms Jeremiah said that it was understandable as SIM cards were no longer just for basic calling and SMS like in the past.

“Due to technological advancement, we have other devices that use SIM cards other than just mobile phones, and these devices include Wi-Fi routers, swiping machines and others,” she said.

Ms Jeremiah said apart from that, people own an average of two SIM cards each for personal use, and noted that SIM card registration is not only for Batswana, but even foreigners.

She also explained that they have situations where a person can have about four SIM cards registered under their name due to the fact that children who are still under age and have no ID cards register under their parents’ names.

Ms Jeremiah also advised those whose SIM cards were disconnected after the expiry of the mandatory registration deadline to approach their service providers, or use any online registration procedure to register.

“Registration is continuous, but we have this mandatory one that is done every four years after which people can still continue to register to reclaim their SIM cards,” she said, and indicated that the next mandatory registration will be in 2028.

She however, said that she could not compare the current registration data with any past one as that data was not readily available. 

Ms Jeremiah also indicated that SIM card registration was important as it helped make the network secure for all stakeholders.

“If every active SIM card is registered it can help in cases of scammers because those people could easily be traced. As a regulator we have a mandate of keeping the network clean by sieving out any SIM card that may be used illegally, and KYC (Know Your Customer) is one of those exercises,” she said.

Apart from that, she said that the availability of such data enabled the regulatory and stakeholders such as network service providers to formulate services relevant to the needs of clients. Ends