Adress SIMs re-registration reluctance – Kenya!

Multiple SIM ownership is prevalent across Africa for many reasons including varying data prices, connectivity speeds and signal strength. In 2018, four African countries were among the top 10 globally, with dual or multi-SIM mobile phones. Kenya even once had plans to institute an ownership cap of 10 SIM cards per person. Telecom operators like Safaricom also often incentivise registration processes to sell more prepaid SIM cards.

THE SCRAMBLE AGAINST DISCONNECTION;

Across the continent, there is a growing list of governments embarking on a mass disconnection drive citing, among other things, domestic security. Such countries like Zambia, Tanzania, Nigeria, and Kenya are struggling with convincing their citizens to re-register their SIMs.

But the move has been a long time coming.

Last year, Tanzania said it had blocked close to a million SIM cards suspected to have been involved in criminal activities.

In a bid to also curtail mobile scams, Ghana issued a directive for every SIM card carrier to re-register their SIMs with the Ghana Card, the national residency card, or lose them.

In March 2022, Zambia announced it had deactivated 2 million SIMs cards to stem the volume of fraud carried out using mobile lines.

In 2015, the Nigerian government fined MTN, one of the continent’s biggest telecom players, $5.2bn for defaulting in cutting off unverified customers. Consequently, more than 75 Million subscribers were switched off.

In Kenya, the April 15th deadline for re-registration is fast approaching and there is a clamber by subscribers of the various Telcos to beat the deadline – the third such deadline in the past 10 years. In 2013, the Communications Authority (CA) switched off more than 2 million SIM cards after an?attack by the al-Shabab.

HOW DID WE GET HERE?

With Africa having a 44% mobile penetration rate, SIM cards are one of the most universal technologies around. At least 50 of Africa’s 54 countries have mandatory SIM registration laws in place, but most have barely been enforced – until now.

Registration usually involves the submission of personal data and the capture of citizen biometrics.

The rationale is that this registration will help create a vast database to help track criminal activity. It is laughable that SIMs are accessible even on the streets for sometimes as low as Kash. 20 and are frequently bought and discarded by suspected criminals, without any – or not enough – details of their identity to trace and monitor them.

Since 9/11, in many countries, if you want to get a SIM card, you have to show some form of identification. It is rather normal that the government should require those who are using SIMs services to register with the operators and the telecommunication companies should know who is connected to their services.

On the surface, this sounds like a quick and cheap solution for many governments in a continent where most countries have no unified operational national database.

The outcome is that the data gathered from SIM registrations are not as accurate or neat as they ought to be.

The ID systems are not really backed by technology, there are no linkages, so there is no verification process. If the telecommunication companies themselves don’t enforce that, it is very hard for the government to make use of the data.

WHY THE RELUCTANCE TO RE-REGISTER!

At the root of it all is a mass unwillingness to register SIM cards due to a seeming distrust by citizens to hand over their details to the government. There are concerns about data privacy and the inestimable capacity of the government to use data collected for one purpose for a completely different one and usually without the consent of the citizens. This had bred deep intolerance.

There is also a legal void around government handling of data. A 2021 report by Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), claimed that only half of African countries have adopted laws to protect personal data.

Repeated registration exercises have also weakened the will of the people.

Over the years, Kenya has instituted multiple mandatory identity registration schemes, including the National Identification card, popularly known as ID, the Personal Identification Number (PIN), alongside more widespread IDs like voters’ cards, digital passports, digital driving licenses, Huduma Namba and others.

Yet, the government is insisting that the way forward is for every SIM card to be linked with an ID, a policy that many Kenyans say is just as cumbersome and bureaucratic as its predecessors – and will possibly end up achieving nothing too.

This will compound the continuing redundancy of multiple registrations.

The new registration warrants the submission of the phone number, copy of passport or visa and biodata page, exit stamps and scanned ID – ?the same items residents submitted during the last exercise in 2018 for registering the Huduma Namba – being the most recent attempt by the government to consolidate a database of its citizens.

The bigger fear, however, is of government surveillance under the guise of national security, leading to a widespread reluctance to willingly submit personal data which can be used to monitor their everyday activities. Concerns of data privacy, in the example of Kenya, where our government seems to have total power, are valid indeed.

THE ECONOMIC DOWN-SIDE OF DISCONNECTION

The risks of disconnection extend to small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) in a digital era where SIMs and the world of possibilities on the internet are helping empower many in the absence of social welfare schemes.

Already, SMEs account for 80% of employment and make up 96% of businesses in Kenya contributing more than 40% of the country's GDP. Shutting millions of people out of seamless communication and transaction could adversely affect the economy. What we are going to lose is roughly one-third or about 35% of the connected lines that we have and there will be major economic consequences, probably with no gain in terms of security.

WAY FORWARD;

For effective data clean up, there is a need for sensitization drives across the country. It doesn’t help to create urgency on a limited timeline for a country with over 40 million subscribers. Do the Telcos even have the capacity to handle the crowds or reach the far-flung areas?

Additionally, it is obvious that the Telcos have some form of data on their subscribers. They should be tased to carry out a data audit and where insufficiencies are observed, targeted data clean up be done as opposed to mass re-registration. Affected subscribers could be notified and given enough time to update their data.

As was the case with MTN Nigeria, the government could put the responsibility on the Telcos to demand re-registration after a data audit. Only unverified subscribers will be required to re-register or get switched off. Then the government can deal with the service provider without being seen as interfering with the fundamental rights of its citizens.

The mentioned sensitization should include educating the populace on the data protection law. This might help reduce the level of distrust.

Everyone wants assurance from the government on data safety; controlled access and use.