NCC inaugurates committee to check unregistered SIM cards

Worried by the hydra-headed dangers of incidences of improperly registered, unregistered and pre-registered Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) Cards, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has inaugurated a 12-man Taskforce to bring up solutions to the scourge.  

Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta disclosed this recently after a high powered meeting with all the telecommunications companies (telcos) operating in Nigeria in NCC Headquarters, Abuja.

The meeting on Monday was the highpoint 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 noncompliance to the Telephone Subscribers Registration Regulation 2011, by the telcos and said this can no longer be business as usual.

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“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”.

While appreciating the cooperation of the telcos so far in the race to solve this problem, Danbatta said much is 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”.

According to the terms of reference (ToR) for the committee, operators must put in place a robust and active backend to check cases of improperly registered SIM cards before activation.

“The taskforce would also look at the sources of these improperly and pre-registered SIM cards by asking operators to look inwards to forestall insiders’ abuse,” the statement read.

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 & Regulatory Services and Mr. Salisu Abdu, Head, Enforcement all of NCC are members while the telcos have a member each.