Caller Identification: government on the offensive

The government of Cameroon is on the offensive to ensure that telephone users in Cameroon are duly identified as part of strategies to fight Boko Haram.

The campaign launched in 2012 by the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications was as a response to an upsurge in phone scam and abuse of phone privacy.

During this period, people could buy many sim cards as possible without being identified by the various mobile service providers.

It is in this light that government has intensified the sim card identification process to ensure that caller identification is guaranteed at a time Cameroon is facing security challenges in the Northern Regions.

The intensification in the identification of numbers and owners is glaring along the streets of Yaounde and in the regions as one cannot buy a sim card without an identity card.

Sorrelle Djeufouo, a mobile sim card vendor is one among several who roam the streets of Yaounde in search of customers. She says she has been instructed by her main service provider to sell only to persons with identification documents.

She adds that she even does the sim card identification on the streets with the use of a specialised smartphone. With this phone she takes photographs of the buyers to complete the personal information needed to register the card.

Eric operates a callbox and sells sim cards around the Yaounde Main Postal Office, he says he does not sell to unidentified persons.

This process that is carried out all around the country is government’s intent to officially identify all telephone users in the country because she is fighting an unknown enemy.