Prime Minister Dr Ruhaka Rugunda has Wednesday afternoon directed that simcard verification and validation exercise be extended until 19th next month.
This followed an order from Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) to all telecom firms to disable all simcards whose owners do not verify their lines with an authentic national ID.
“The government has reviewed the said timelines and taken a decision that the ongoing SIM card verification exercise should be extended to the 19th May 2017,” reads the letter signed by the Prime Minister.
However, In a letter to the Executive Director UCC, Godfrey Mutabaazi, The Prime Minister does not provide the grounds on which the decision was made to extend the deadline to May 19th.
Earlier today , UCC’s Fred Otunnu met with members of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights chaired by Hon Jovah Kamateka, where he alluded to the possibility of extending the deadline, promising that the commission would come out with a clearer decision tomorrow Thursday.
“We have received several proposals on the extension of the deadline; others talk of one month, three months and 6months and all that will be put into consideration and it will be made clear to the public but for now we proceed with the deadline which is tomorrow,” Otunnu said.
Rugunda’s decision has breathed new life into panicky Ugandans who are lacking national IDs.