Safaricom gives notice of 8 days deadline to register SIM cards

Telecommunications operator Safaricom has advised customers who haven't updated their SIM registration details to do so before the set deadline of October 15, 2022.

This comes after the Communication Authority (CA) on April 14, extended the SIM registration deadline to the aforesaid date to allow more time for network operators and subscribers to comply with the directive.

"8 days to go! Update your SIM registration details on bit.ly/kyc-upload, my Safaricom App or any M-PESA Agent near you. Usipitwe na wakati!" said the telco in a tweet on Saturday.

Between April and June this year, telecommunication operators deactivated a further 287,214 SIM cards as part of the ongoing SIM registration exercise.

“During the 2021-2022 financial year, the mobile phone telephone service sub-sector was marked by a significant regulatory intervention that involved updating the registration details of all SIM cards in the country. This exercise resulted to deactivation of SIM cards registered under the wrong identification details,” the CA said in its quarterly report to June.

In April, CA Director Ezra Chiloba said Safaricom had achieved a 67 per cent rate of compliance in the registration exercise while Airtel Kenya and Telkom had a rate of compliance of 55 and 33 per cent respectively.

Non-compliance to the exercise is expected to attract fines to both operators and subscribers.