Businesses and other stakeholders mandated with a task of championing Sim card registration have agreed that the registration campaign exercise should start on March 12.
Chairperson of the Civil Society Taskforce on Sim card registration, Undule Mwakasungula, said the decision to start awareness campaigns was arrived at after a meeting the taskforce conducted last week Monday.
“The civil society-led campaign will be held in partnership with Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra). The taskforce comes in because it has been part and parcel of the review of the current Communications Act,” Mwakasungula said.
He said the objectives of the sensitisation campaign are to encourage and motivate Malawians to register their Sim cards and raise awareness on the new Communications Act, which empowers Macra to embark on the exercise.
“The exercise will be conducted in all the three regions starting from Monday [next week]. It will start with briefings with district executive committees and then road shows,” he said.
Mwakasungula said it was also agreed that service providers should open village registration centres so that communities do not travel long distances to register.
“Benefits of the exercise are that it will add value to a number of issues including economic growth and curb hate text messages,” he said.
Recently, Macra Communications Manager, Clara Mwafulirwa, said the development is in accordance with the Communications Act of 2016 which outlines, among other things, the obligations of consumers and service providers concerning the registration of Sim cards.
“Any number that is not registered by this date will automatically be barred from the network until registration is done,” she said.
Mwafulirwa said new subscribers should also register their Sim cards upon acquisition of their numbers with the service provider.
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