People found using unregistered SIM cards after 30th September, 2018 will face a fine of K5 million, it has been revealed.
The Parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee in conjunction with the Media & ICT committee revealed this at a press briefing on Tuesday.
According to Legal Affairs Committee Chairperson Maxwell Thyolela, the Communications Act of 2016 requires any SIM card user to register the card with an authorized distributor, agent or dealer of the phone company.
“Section 94 of the Act makes it an offence for any person to use an unregistered SIM card or generic number. The punishment for this offence is K5 million and imprisonment for 5 years. It is therefore very important that every subscriber must register his number or SIM card to be on the right side of the law,” he said.
Mobile phone companies are currently registering SIM cards as directed by Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA). The deadline for the registration is September 30 and after that day all unregistered SIM cards will be deactivated.
Thyolera advised people in the country to register their SIM cards since mobile service providers will be forced to disconnect unregistered SIM cards when deadline the passes.
“As a Committee we strongly urge MACRA to punish operators that will fail to comply with the deactivation deadline of 1st October,” Thyolera said.
He added that the registration is aimed at protecting subscribers from criminals who use unregistered SIM cards to trick and swindle people.
From October 1, any person who buys a new SIM card will need to first register with the mobile service provider before using it.
Subscribers can know if they registered or not by dialing *122# for those on Airtel while TNM subscribers should dial *277#.
GO TO HELL ROBBERS. I hope u r still sleeping till now when will u work up stop dreaming during the day this is 2018 NOT 1960s. I HOPE YOUR AGE WILL DESTROY OUR COUNTY JUST STEP DOWN ONCE.
Parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee = {MY FOOT} RUBBISH
Hahaha I’ve never heard of such, even rich governments like South Africa don’t do that. Is that a threat or what? Why not send to jail those that are stealing public funds to five years in prison or fine them that five million. If you want, why not just deactivate that number than punishing innocent people? What about a poor villager, where will they get that amount of money? Are you out of your mind? Well educated and civilized people discussing this nonsense, hahaha anthu adzakusekani. Zaziiii!!! Just say tidzakula nambala ya amend sapanga register that’s enough.
Who passed law that the fine would be that? Dont fool Malawians please. However if you are mad try try. There is no law that state that without community/ malawians vote for it. You need Panadol one who released this article. Shame poor minister of information and telecommunication. I guess you are up rest in peace
To me, what is being said in the article is that the service providers such as Airtel and TNM are the ones that will be punished if they fail to deactivate their unregistered customers. It is not the customers that will pay the fine.
KKKKKKKK!
Why all that money, Malawi is not a rich country that its citizens get money easier.
Solve this matter in a differnt way.
Unregistered sim cards must not have network finish and easier.
This will turn into a past decade when there was no easier for people to have a cell phone.
Let the brain work