Nairobi – Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan are working to reach a common SIM card registration framework to help tame crime that is perpetrated using mobile phones. Officials from the four nations met in Nairobi yesterday, where they discussed harmonisation of their legal frameworks to develop a common SIM card registration system.

"SIM card registration has been primarily necessitated by the need to ensure that ICT networks, particularly mobile telecom services, are secured from misuse for criminal activities,” said Kenya’s Communications Authority director general Francis Wangusi. "The new framework will help deal with fraud as the region strives to realise financial inclusion for the citizens,” said Joseph Tiampati, the ICT Principal Secretary.

A statement signed by Kenya’s ICT Secretary Fred Matiang’i, Uganda’s John Nasasira, Jean Philbert Nsengimana of Rwanda and South Sudan’s Rebecca Joshua Okwachi states that the four countries would interconnect national identification (ID) systems. Wangusi said the ID cards will then be linked to SIM cards of mobile users as in the case of Kenya.

In the new arrangement, Uganda for instance will recognise a Kenyan registered SIM card from its end and trace the owner in case it is used to commit a crime. The region last year reached a deal that saw the cost of cross-border calls between member countries drop.