Criminals are stealing identities of unsuspecting citizens and using them for illegal purposes, casting a shadow on enforcement of compulsory sim card registration.

A year ago, the government enforced compulsory SIM card registration across the country, a move that was expected to minimise fraud using mobile phones. Rwanda Today has however learnt that some telecom agents tasked with registering SIM cards are abusing the procedures and recording particulars of people other than the owners of the telephone numbers without their knowledge.

“I once checked the numbers registered on my identity and I was surprised that I had more than three SIM cards while I could only recognise one,” said a resident of Kicukiro who did not want to be named.

The 30-year-old man said he called the numbers and one of the respondents was a foreigner who did not speak Kinyarwanda.

Non-residents are not allowed to register SIM cards at just any point of sale. They are required to go to a mobile telephony service provider’s service centre, where they are manually registered upon presentation of original travel documents.

Details from lost IDs

Telecom agents interviewed by Rwanda Today revealed that some of their colleagues register SIM cards using their own documents or even use particulars obtained from lost IDs.

This is done disregarding rules by the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (Rura) that any activation of a SIM card shall be subject to the registration of personal information of the individual subscriber wishing to use that SIM card.

To register a SIM card, a subscriber must have a valid identity card while for minors registration is done in their parents’ or guardians’ names.

“That is a very serious mistake on the part of registration agents and should be blamed on operators,” said Jean Baptiste Mutabazi, the head of communication and media at Rura.

Mr Mutabazi revealed that Rura had received reports of inadequacies in the system from the police and was considering upgrading it. Though denying knowledge of the issue, mobile phone operators however acknowledged that there were loopholes in the system.

“The way they say it is technically possible but we are yet to get any complaint that a false ID has been used to register an MTN number,” said Robert Rwakabogo, the MTN Rwanda marketing operations manager. He said that should any of the company’s agents be caught performing such acts the company would take action against them.

“I believe this is a criminal act punishable under Rwandan law and if it happens at any of our agents’ we would immediately report him/her to the police,” he added.

Though deemed vulnerable, operators believe if well followed the existing measures would help to avoid inaccuracies.

“Every morning we meet all our agents before the start of business and, among other things, we remind them to register any individual acquiring a new Tigo line after physically checking their identification,” said Pierre Kayitana, the public relations and events manager at Tigo Rwanda.

Track down criminals

He affirmed that, so far, Tigo had not received any grievance concerning abuse in SIM card registration.

Apart from helping service providers to know their customers, SIM card registration was intended to help law enforcement agencies to identify the mobile phone SIM card owners. That would help in tracking down criminals who use phones for illegal activities and curb other negative incidents such as loss of handsets through theft, nuisance and hate text messages, fraud, threats and inciting violence.

But there is a fear that some of the SIM cards registered on wrong identities are being used in criminal activities and implicating unsuspecting innocent subscribers.

“My friend is detained and is under investigation for allegedly having sent hate text messages,” said a university student who did not want to be named. “We suspect that somebody who knows her registered a SIM card using her ID and is using this number to send these messages.”

The case is under investigation.