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Nigeria: NCC Inaugurates Committee to Register Sim Cards
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Vanguard (Lagos)
18 July 2008
Posted to the web 18 July 2008
Laide Akinboade
Lagos
The move to nip criminal activities committed with the use of mobile phones recorded a major boost in Abuja yesterday when the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, the Nigerian security and intelligence agencies, and major telecom operators reached a consensus for immediate implementation of a nationwide registration of all existing and prospective prepaid mobile phone services.
The consensus was reached during a consultative forum hosted by the NCC, for the operators; at the behest of the security agencies who have complained to the Commission that criminal activities perpetrated through this category of users have become a source of concern as disclosure of identities of the users are not required during the purchase of the lines.
The Executive Vice-Chairman of the Commission, Ernest Ndukwe, who, yesterday in Abuja, inaugurated a committee that will look into the modalities that will be used in the registration of Sim cards, said such documentation will help the security agencies to track down criminals who use mobile phones to perpetrate evil.
The NCC boss stated that deadline would be given to GSM operators to ensure the registration of personal details of both old and new subscribers and that all unregistered prepaid cards may be deactivated after the deadline of registration.
According to him, security agents have complained to NCC in the past about the difficulty they have in tracking criminals who use Mobile phones to perpetrate crimes.
Engr. Ndukwe admitted that one of the challenges that will affect the project is the non-existence of national identification for majority of Nigerian populace.
"The commission has been deliberating on this issue for sometime and additionally we have received complaints from security agencies expressing growing concern about the use of mobile phones to commit crimes and the difficulty in tracking down the perpetrators who take advantage of unregistered Sim Card especially for prepaid consumers."
He noted that in view of the fact that there are over 50million sim cards currently in circulation in Nigeria, the commission intends to collaborate with all network operators who issue Sim cards to subscribers and promised that the modalities will be vital and at the same time simple.
He observed, "Sim card is an area of security concern. Criminals exploit the anonymity of prepaid Sim cards to avoid detection. This project will be a catalyst for the development of a credible database. If properly managed and administered, the database will be a veritable source of information not only for the sector but also for the business and financial sector of the economy of the economy."
He cited some countries that already have sim cards registers, such as, Australia, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Norway, Switzerland and South Africa.
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Membership of the committee include representatives of MTN, CELTEL, MTEL, GLO, Intercellular, Reltel, Starcomms, NCC, the media, Independent National Electoral Commission, National Population Commission, security agencies, and SIM card suppliers.
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