Business
NCC Defends N6.1bn SIM Cards Registration Budget
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says the N6.1 billion budgeted for the registration of SIM cards is to ensure comprehensive registration of telecoms users.
Mr Bashir Gwandu, Acting Executive Vice Chairman of the commission said this in an interview with newsmen over the weekend in Lagos.
He said the commission would require N120 to register one subscriber in view of the complexity of the exercise.
Our source recalls that the budget presented by the commission on July 15 to the House of Representatives for approval was rejected by the House on Thursday.
The amount, proposed in the 2010 budget of the commission, drew the ire of most members of the House when it was raised for consideration on the floor.
The lawmakers said it was unjustified for the NCC as a regulator to appropriate such amount for the exercise which they said was the sole responsibility of the network service providers.
Gwandu said the project entails comprehensive processes that would involve the crossing of rivers and going down to the remote villages to register the telecoms users.
The NCC chief said the process of registration would require capturing different features of faces of the existing over 78 million subscribers and their finger prints.
According to him, capturing of different features of the subscribers was more important than just capturing only the faces.
“Capturing these features will make it easier to catch anyone who uses the phone to perpetrate evil,” he said.
Gwandu said that the registration to be carried out by the regulatory body was more complex than what the telecoms operators were currently doing.