SIM registration: More cards to be blocked as NCC sets up taskforce

        

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said the menace of improperly registered, unregistered and pre-registered Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards will no longer be tolerated.

Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, made the declaration on Monday after a meeting with all the telecommunications companies (telcos) operating in Nigeria at the NCC headquarters, Abuja.

Consequently, he set up a 12-man taskforce to bring up solutions to the problem. 

The terms of reference include operators must put in place a robust and active back end to check cases of improperly registered SIM cards before activation;  the use of electronic back end is preferable; the taskforce should also look at the sources of the improperly  and pre-registered SIM cards by asking operators to look inwards to forestall insider abuse; clear up the systems regularly to wipe off and segregate between real and fake data among others

The taskforce, which has six weeks to submit its report to the EVC for onward transmission to the ONSA, has Mr. Efosa Idehen, Head, Compliance, Monitoring and Enforcement at NCC as chairman; Mr. Bashir Idris, Head, Projects; Mrs. Yetunde Akinloye, Head, Legal and Regulatory Services and Mr. Salisu Abdu, Head, Enforcement all of NCC as members.

The telcos have a member each. These are Mr. Tobechukwu Okigbo (MTN); Mr. Oluwatosin Cole (GloMobile); Mr. Sola Adeyemi (Airtel) and Mr. Damian Udeh (ntel) as members.

A statement from the Director, Public Affairs, NCC, Tony Ojobo, said the meeting on Monday was the high point of several meetings initiated by the commission in the last two years with a view to finding solutions to the recurrent dangers of the improperly registered SIM cards in the country.

Danbatta expressed the fears by everybody, especially in reference to security reports from the office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and the fear of non-compliance to the Telephone Subscribers Registration Regulation 2011, by the telcos. He said it can no longer be business as usual.

“We must safeguard lives and properties of Nigerians who travel by road especially now and the festive seasons and others who may be threatened or blackmailed via unregistered and improperly registered SIM cards,” he stated.

Danbatta listed several security challenges that have bedevilled the country as a result of the menace of improperly registered SIM cards.  He lamented that even where SIM cards were registered, the captured data represented strange figures different from the user of such SIM card.

He said the dangers are real and everybody will lose at the end, hence the need to address it now before the situation went out of hand.

While appreciating the cooperation of the telcos so far in the race to resolve the problem, Danbatta said much is still left to be done “hence this meeting”, for continuous engagement, adding that “today’s meeting has the backing of the government which desires solutions as quickly as possible”.