Business
11 Million SIM Cards Registered – NCC
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said that telecommunications operators had registered only 11 million Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards out of the 80 million telephone subscribers in the country.
Eugene Juwah, Executive Vice-Chairman of the NCC made the disclosure recently in Lagos at an interactive session with newsmen.
Juwah said that it was obvious that the operators could not do it alone within the deadline of six months.
He said the service providers were to register new subscribers, while the commission was to register the existing ones.
He noted with ‘dismay that the operators had yet to comply with the directive of registering new SIM cards before they were activated.
“The commission still manages a situation where SIM cards are still being sold on the streets several months after it set the May 1, 2010 date for operators to commence registration.
“We want to ensure that all new SIM cards are registered by the operators as mandated and we expect them to render regular account of the numbers registered,” Juwah said.
He said the commission would finalise arrangement to commence registration of all existing SIM cards from February, 2011.
Juwah said the commission would have commenced its part of the registration if not for the delay in the approval of the 2010 budget of the commission by the National Assembly.
He said the NCC’s involvement in the registration of SIM cards was to ensure that the project achieved the desired goals.
These explanations came in response to complaints and queries by Nigerians on why the regulatory body should be involved in the exercise.
The desired objective of the SIM registration was to curb incessant rate of crime in the country.
Juwah said that there was Foundation Data Base in African countries where only the service providers engaged in SIM card registration but none was available in Nigeria.
He said with the Foundation Data Base, identity of a SIM card holder could be matched to the data base, when he or she wanted to register the SIM card.
According to him, the commission is already working with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to ensure that such data base is put in place as the SIM card registration proceeds.
He also said a resolution was reached, whereby it was agreed that the project be executed by the regulatory body (NCC) and the operators.
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