14 June 2022

Cell phone operators in Lesotho will have to start registering their subscribers’ SIM cards from June 24, in a process that will take place over a period of twelve months.

Vodacom Lesotho and Econet Lesotho, the country’s two main telecommunications companies, said they were ready to begin the operation on the scheduled date. “We have contributed to what has now been enacted as law and we would like to inform our customers that we are ready to start registration on the date indicated,” said Mohale Ralebitso, managing director, Vodacom Lesotho. “We will start with the piloting process of ensuring that the processes and devices we have purchased are effective to start rolling out registration across the country.”

The operators will use national identification and civil registration to identify customers during the operation. For corporate SIM cards, one proxy will be selected per company for registration. SIM cards that are not registered at the end of the process will be removed from the network service provider’s system and decommissioned.

In December 2021, both houses of parliament approved the Citizens’ SIM Registration Bill in Lesotho, after first rejecting it in order to conduct further “consultations with various stakeholders. Since then, network operators have stepped up investments to ensure that the process runs smoothly. Vodacom says it has already invested US$8.1 million to prepare for the launch. These funds have been used to recruit new staff and purchase devices.

Lesotho will join several African countries such as Kenya and Nigeria, which have developed and implemented telecom subscriber registration policies. South Africa is currently preparing a similar process. These initiatives reflect the ambition of governments to combat the rise of cybercrime across the continent.

SIM card registration is of strategic importance to operators and the nation because it will allow them to know “that a certain phone number belongs to a certain individual and that he or she is certainly the only owner” in order to avoid cases of sim boxing, financial scams, kidnapping, terrorism and related crimes.

Registration is provided for in the Communications (Subscriber Identity Module Registration) Regulations 2021.