The Federal Government has ordered Nigerian mobile and other network operators to deactivate all pre-registered phones or face sanctions.
The telecoms regulator says it has asked network operators to deactivate all Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards, the system that terminates phone lines, under measures to address security challenges in the country.
The industry umpire says that network operators have so far registered and transmitted record of over 120 milion SIM cards to the government central database holding biometric information of Nigeria’s teeming mobile phone subscribers across all networks.
However, the government agency is worried that as at at January 2015, about 45% of the total number of registered SIMs revealed data shortfalls like invalid portrait image, invalid fingerprints, a combination of invalid portrait image and fingerprints and incorrect or inaccurate demographic data like name, address, among others.
“The industry umpire says that network operators have so far registered and transmitted record of over 120 milion SIM cards to the government central database holding biometric information of Nigeria’s teeming mobile phone subscribers across all networks.”
Nigeria SIM Card Registration
“Since the invalid records were returned to the operators in September 2014 for correction, less than 30% of the invalid records has been resubmitted”, the telecoms regulator claims.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says that mobile phone networks now have a seven-day ultimatum to comply with the directive or face the wrath of the law.
According to the telecoms industry watchdog, the directive came in the wake of of the seemingly intractable security challenge in the country that has claimed the live of innocent citizens over the last couple of years.
NCC says its latest order emantes from a meeting between the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), Department of State Service (DSS) and network operators in the country.
The telecoms regulator says that the meeting, which took place at the NCC Boardroom in Abuja, took into account crimes committed against members of the public either by kidnappers, terrorists, robbers and other threats to lives through the use of such unregistered SIM cards across all the networks in Nigeria.
Mr Tony Ojobo, Director, Public Affairs of NCC says in a statement made available to Technology Times that the seven-day has been handed down to network operators “for deactivation of all invalid/improperly registered SIM cards; these include all SIM cards without or improperly captured facial pictures and or finger – prints.”
Ojobo says that affected subscribers are to be notified to “regularize their registrations” as the operators were told to notify such subscribers before deactivation of their SIM cards.
Dr Eugene Juwah, ex-Executive Vice Chairman of NCC
According to the telecoms regulator, the meeting was attended by the representatives of the NSA, Group Captain Ibikunle Daramola; DSS, Mr. Godwin Ometu; the immediate past Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of NCC, Dr Eugene Juwah;Engr. Ubale Maska, Executive Commissioner, Technical Services. Other in attendance include representatives of MTN Nigeria, Globacom, Etisalat Nigeria, Visafone, Airtel Nigeria, among others.
According to NCC, some of the key highlights of the meeting include the following resolutions:
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Henceforth, all registrations must conform to the Data Dictionary, Technical Specifications on finger prints and facial images and the business rule agreed by all stakeholders.
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All registration records must be validated before sending to the Commission; thus eliminating all invalid records that does not conform new registrations and indicate same in the monthly reports sent to Commission.
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It was also resolved that operators will be held liable for cases for cases of pre-registered SIMs.
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Earlier grace of 21 days given by the Commission has lapsed.
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Sanctions for default will apply in accordance with the SIM registration regulations.
On multiple registration, NCC decided that:
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The regulation did not set a cap for number of SIMs to be registered by individual or corporate subscribers.
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However, operators must ensure all registrations valid and in accordance with the documents and specifications stated in 1 (a).
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Unusually high number of registration by an individual should be flagged and reported to the commission.
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The Commission and all operators are to embark on vigorous public enlightenment on the need/ desirability for subscribers to register their SIMs, as well as the dangers of selling /buying pre-registered SIMs.
The regulator also observed that:
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To date, more than 120 million SIM cards have been registered and transmitted to the Central Database by the operators.
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The validation exercise reveals a preponderance of unreliable data in terms of incomplete and/ or inaccurate demographic and / or biometric data.
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The issues relating to unreliability of data essentially borders on the operators’ failure to ensure compliance with the formats and specifications that were jointly developed and agreed by the NCC and the operators before the commencement of the exercise in 2011.
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The observation also noted that as at September 2014, about 45% of the total number of registered SIMs, at that time, were deemed invalid for reasons of a) invalid portrait image only, invalid fingerprints only, invalid portrait image and fingerprints, and incorrect/ inaccurate demographic data (name, address, etc).
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Since the invalid records were returned to the operators in September 2014 for correction, less than 30% of the invalid records has been resubmitted.
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These resolutions were part of the ongoing efforts by government to nip in the bud the incessant occurrences of threats via telecommunications networks and the danger they portend for psyche of the citizenry.
