NCC Explains SIM Card Registration

The Nigerian

Communication Commission (NCC) says one of its objectives in carrying out the mass registration of SIM cards is to check some criminalities that are associated with telecommunication subscribers.

The Registration Officer 1 in the NCC Port Harcourt Office, Mr. Chinagorom Ajah, gave this hint in Port Harcourt on Wednesday while speaking with The Tide.

Ajah said that their target was to trim down some insecurity surrounding  GSM users in the country, adding that people send some fraudulent messages and calls through their lines.

He noted that the exercise will at the end of the day, permanently  tackle all criminalities in GSM usage.

According to him, each subscriber will be made to face any crime that was traced to his/her line, as measures are being put in place to ensure that all subscribers register their lines individually.

He noted that the exercise is currently running across the 23 local governments in Rivers State to ensure proper registration of all subscribers in the state.

About the challenges facing the exercise, he said that it was internal, adding that NCC is taking steps in handling it.

He admitted that enough publicity has not been made about the exercise, while calling on the media to help in publicity in order to enable the commission meet up with its target.

Ajah revealed that the commission was ready to accommodate 86-90 million subscribers in the country without much stress due to the time frame earmarked for the exercise by the commission.

He explained that all subscribers who registered previously with their respective service providers ought to re-register with NCC as the authorised agency in telecommunication business.

It would be recalled that the federal government had sometime last year announced the registration of all SIM cards in order to, among other things, checkmate criminal calls and SMS in the country.

Emmanuella Azubuike