Five telecom companies in Tanzania fined Sh2 billion for enabling Sim card fraud

In its report for the fourth quarter of the 2023 calendar year, TCRA recorded a total of 21,788 fraud incidences. This was a 73 percent increase compared to 12,603 cases reported in the same period in 2022.

The report showed that during the three months to December 2023, five regions recorded the most cases of SIM card fraud.

They are Rukwa (with 7,666 cases reported), Morogoro (7,171 cases), Dar es Salaam (1,717 cases), Mbeya (1,549 cases), and Tabora (590 cases).

It was against such a background that it has come to The Citizen’s knowledge that Airtel, Tigo, Halotel, Vodacom, and TTCL will now have to pay Sh2.085 billion in total fines for their failure to abide by a provision that requires them not to use a single national identity card to register over five Sim cards as required under Section 37 of the Sim Card Registration Regulations, 2023.

The companies were found to have flouted the regulations during the period from September to November 2023, as discovered in an audit that was conducted by the regulator in November 2023.

According to the details of the fine, Airtel allowed a total of 26,009 SIM cards to be registered using only 6,165 National Identity Cards.

As such, the company will have to pay Sh1.541 billion in fines.

Tigo will pay Sh473 million in fines for using a total of 1,892 IDs to register the number of Sim cards that was higher than that required under the regulations.

Halotel were discovered to allow 202 IDs to register 1,632 SIM Cards and as such, the telecommunications firm will have to pay Sh50.5 million in fines.

On the Vodacom platform, it is reported that 59 IDs were found to have been used in registering the number of Sim cards that exceeded the regulatory threshold.

As such, the company, which is the only telecom outfit to have been listed on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE), will have to pay Sh14.75 million in fines.

On the TTCL platform, some 12 IDs were used to register SIM cards in infringement of the regulations. The company will thus have to pay Sh5 million in fines.

When reached for comment, some of the telecom firms were not ready to react to the development; however, they did acknowledge receiving the fine notice.

However, in a similar report for the first quarter of 2023, where TCRA flagged a rising trend of fraud, The Citizen managed to get views from some of the top telcos on what they were doing to address the matter.

Tigo’s then acting marketing director (she has since been confirmed), Ms Edwardina Mgendi, said the firm has a robust process of onboarding the agents involved in Sim card registration in line with set regulations.

“Appropriate action is taken against agents who go against regulations, which includes terminating their services permanently,” she said.

Airtel’s public relations manager, Jackson Mmbando, said the company was “working on areas that are prone to fraud so as to address the matter and provide good services to their customers.”

The TCRA director general, Dr Jabiri Bakari, told Mwananchi yesterday that they were working around the clock to contain fraudulent activities in the telecommunications sector. 

“Along with other regulatory measures (which he did not mention), we also continue to provide education to the public to understand the safe use of network services,” he said.