A total of 2.224 million improperly registered SIM cards have been blocked from telecom services by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), a top official of the commission said yesterday.
The federal government had given the NCC up to last Wednesday to cut off all SIM cards not properly registered by their owners from telecom networks.
The Minister of Communications, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, gave the directive in Abuja, after he inaugurated the newly constituted NCC board about two weeks ago.
“I have breaking news for you: After the announcement last week of the 9.2m SIM cards in circulation, the NCC Executive Vice Chairman has just briefed me that about 6.775m have been rectified.
“This means we have only 2.242m yet to be rectified. So we want them to be properly registered on or before 25th September 2019,” the minister said.
He said after the deadline, NCC should rein in on the telecom operators and block the subscribers.
But NCC’s Director of Public Affairs, Dr Henry Nkemadu, told Daily Trust via a text message that all the improperly registered SIMS had been deactivated from telecom networks.
‘’All invalidly-registered SIMs (numbers) that the operators have not been able to properly register have been barred from the networks. The SIM cards (numbers) cannot receive or make calls,’’ Dr Nkemadu said.
Dr Pantami said it was the FG’s hope that the spate of kidnapping and banditry would be drastically reduced if all the unregistered SIM cards being used by criminals were blocked.
He said major crimes in the country are committed through SIM cards that are not properly registered.
Dr Pantami in an interview with BBC said inconsistency in SIM registration paved way for major crimes to occur on daily basis in the country especially kidnappings. Adding that kidnappers use non-registered SIM cards to call family or relatives of kidnapped persons to demand ransom.
He said his ministry would work with security operatives to bring an end to the crimes committed via the use of mobile phones by forcing network providers to adopt an appropriate measure of SIM card registrations.
He added that failure of the network providers to adopt the right measures of registering the SIM cards and their subscribers is causing a serious setback, thereby leading to increase of crimes in the country.
But the operators said they had been following the SIM registration standard given by the NCC to register the subscribers.
The Chairman of the Association of Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Engr Gbenga Adebayo, said the operators were not culpable on the issue as they complied with NCC’s rule on SIM registration.
Engr Adebayo said the owners of the SIM cards only needed to upgrade their data earlier given to the telecom operators.
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