Business
NCC To End SIM Registration Sept
The Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) says it has between now and September 2011 to register the simcards of all subscribers in the country and to also block those whose lines are not registered with the commission.
The Registration Officer 1 in the Port Harcourt Office of NCC Mr. Chinagorom Ajah, made this known in Port Harcourt recently.
Ajah, said that the commission is prepared to register about 90 million subscribers in the country without much stress to meet up with the time frame earmarked by the Commission.
He explained that those who have different service providers are expected to re-register with the commission as the bonifide organization in telecommunication industry.
He also pointed out that one of the reasons for the registration was to form a unified data-base for subsequent transactions in the country.
According to him, the insecurity surrounding GSM usuage, as well as using phones to dup others through SMS and calls will be a thing of the past after the exercise.
The officer further explained that at the end of the exercise, each subscriber will be made to face any crime that was traced to his line. As measures are put in place to ensure that subscribers register their lines individually.
He, however, told The Tide that the registration is currently running across the 23 Local Governments in Rivers State to ensure proper registration of all subscribers in the state.
On the challenges facing the exercise, he said that they were internal, adding that NCC is taking steps in handling it.
He admitted that enough publicity has not be given to Sim card registration yet and called on the media to help in this area in order to enable the commission meet up with its target.
It would be recalled that the federal government had sometime last year announce the registration of all Sim cards in order to among others, regulate criminal calls and SMS in the country.
Emmanuella Azubuike