SIM cards not yet reactivated

A day after President Yoweri Museveni directed that the SIM card verification exercise be extended for three more months, phone users whose cards were deactivated remain inactive.

At midnight on Friday, telecom operators deactivated unregistered and unverified sim cards, in accordance with the Uganda Communications Commission's (UCC) directive.

The move left many phone users unable to make or receive calls while chaotic scenes played out at SIM card registration centres subscribers struggled to get reconnected.

Museveni, at a meeting of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) Caucus directed the extension of the SIM card registration deadline to August 30, 2017.

"I have agreed to this proposal on condition that the new deadline will be respected. SIM card registration will therefore run until August 30, 2017," the President tweeted.

He added: "I chaired the NRM Caucus today where some MPs appealed for more time for SIM card registration despite the passing of the earlier deadline. The ministry of ICT and other concerned government agencies are authorized to allow this new window. I ask Ugandans to take this exercise seriously."

However, by close of business on Tuesday, many phone users whose SIM cards were deactivated were still off air as their SIM cards had not yet been reconnected by their respective operators.

To verify SIM cards, phone users are required to dial *197*3# and follow prompts to key in their NIN, surname and given name, or alternatively to send their details as a message to 197.

Last month, all mobile phone subscribers were required to update their records by submitting their national identification numbers (NINs) to service providers.

NINs are unique numbers printed at the back of one's national identity card, containing a trove of data about the card holder.