The Nigerian Ministry of Communications has announced a directive on the immediate deactivation of about 9.2 million SIM Cards cutting across all telecommunications networks. A directive which near history suggests will be seen through.
Minister of Communication, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami, gave this directive in Abuja on Thursday disclosing that the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) as well as all telecommunication operators in the country have received orders to block, with immediate effect, affected SIM cards. Spokesman to the Minister, Uwa Suleiman, states that Pantami has also given the directive to all agencies related to his ministry.
This is as a result of the NCC’s findings which revealed precise figures of improperly registered SIM cards in use around the country. The report broke a record by exposing for the first time in the telecomm history in Nigeria, accurate details of the magnitude of defaulters.
During the monthly SIM audit by NCC, it was discovered that about 9.2 million SIM cards were improperly registered. This arose from issues like improper biometrics, absence of photographs, missing addresses amongst others.
Still reacting to this report, Patanmi expressed concerns over the security threats in this development, stating that it was too grave to be ignored as the Ministry would not tolerate any actions or inactions that would compromise the nation’s security. He ordered that urgent update be carried out on such SIMS as affected subscribers would be required to present themselves to telecomm providers for proper documentation and re-registration. Failure to do this would mean that the SIM cards would remain banned.
As part of security measures, NCC disclosed, in August, that mobile network operators in Nigeria would go through another compliance audit of all SIM databases. This registration which would be carried out by NCC has its specifications prescribed in the Telephone Subscribers Registration Regulations and the Technical Standards and Specifications issued by the Commission in 2011. On this development NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman, Umar Danbatta, promised that subscribers would not suffer connection issues during the audit period.
Stating the relevance of the exercise to security, Danbatta said that “the subscriber registration database is a veritable tool being used by security and law enforcement agencies in the detection and apprehension of criminal elements involved in heinous crimes like kidnapping, financial crimes, armed robberies, banditry, cattle rustling and other crimes”. In 2011, a first phase of this audit took place.
SIM card registration, which is a standard practice in recognized economies of the world, commenced in Nigeria in the wake of unending security challenges being faced by the country. The then Executive Chairman of NCC, Engr. Ernest Ndukwe, recommended SIM card registration in 2009. A directive was given by the National Security Adviser, Security Agencies and the NCC that all SIM be registered. The exercise kicked off officially on February 14th, 2011 as campaigns by telecomm operators were evident all over the country.
Initially, as expected, subscribers acted in a reluctant manner towards the exercise and the operators introduced different packages that were intended to lure subscribers to the exercise. After such baits, there was confirmed improved turnout for the exercise. SIM Card registration is now compulsory in Nigeria, without it mobile phone lines are not activate.
Heavy Fine
According to Section 20(1) of Registration of Telephone Subscribers Regulations (TSR) 2011, telecom operators can be heavily fined for not registering SIM.
“Any licensee who activates or fails to deactivate a subscription medium in violation of any provision of these Regulations is liable to a penalty of N200,000.00 for each unregistered but activated subscription medium.” It says.
It was with this hammer the Federal Government reached MTN IN 2011. MTN had 5.2 million unregistered SIMS that were active so the government fined it 5.2 billion Dollars using 1,000 dollars which amounted to 200,000 Naira as at the time.
Top Managers of MTN resigned due to this lapse, in the end MTN negotiated its payment down to a little less than a billion dollars.
With the MTN experience, it appears as though the order for deactivation of partially registered line will be seen through.
