SIM registration compulsory, NCC Insists

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has restated that appropriate registration of SIM numbers by operators and telecom consumers in Nigeria is mandatory.

Sunday Dare, the commission’s executive commissioner for stakeholder management, disclosed this at the 3rd annual sensitization workshop on the consequences of using pre-registered SIM cards.

The programme was organised by NCC for the North Central zone and it took place at Keffi, Nasarawa State.

Dare, who was represented by Efosa Idehen, Director, Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement, NCC, told participants at the workshop that the objective of the SIM registration exercise was to assist in easy identification of mobile telephone users and for the detection of crimes perpetrated by deviant users of mobile phones.

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According to him, “It is illegal to buy or use SIM cards that have been previously registered by a different, usually fictitious names and identities because this will make it difficult to trace users of such SIM cards when the cards are used for crimes.

“By implication, anyone who bought or sell SIM cards that have been pre-registered will be arrested and prosecuted by appropriate agencies of government.

“This explained why NCC issued directions to telecom operators to deactivate all illegal SIM cards and also instructed that any registered and activated MSISDN with no Revenue Generating Event (RGE) within 48 hours should automatically be returned to one way service.”

He added that this means a subscriber so circumstanced can only receive call on the SIM but will not be able to initiate a call.

He noted that the directive to registration agents and citizens to register SIM cards only in “controlled environments” (within a permanent structure or facility), and traceable to a specific agent, is still in force.

He recalled that concerns about infractions connected to SIM cards was the reason NCC sanctioned some operators, arrested and prosecuted some registration agents, and confiscated both their equipment as well as the improperly activated SIM cards found with them.