TheNewsGuru

Tag: sim registration

  • 78m unlinked SIMs get unique NINs – NIMC

    78m unlinked SIMs get unique NINs – NIMC

    Following President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive on barring of Subscriber Identification Modules (SIM) not linked to National Identity Numbers (NIN), the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, has issued over 78 Million unique NINs.

     

    Unique NIN is simply the attachment of subscribers’ names to their SIMs.

     

    As all outgoing calls by defaulting subscribers have been barred, there is still an open window for compliance at designated NIMC centres nationwide.

     

    This was disclosed on Monday in a joint statement by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Director of Public Affairs, Dr Ikechukwu Adinde, and National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, Director of Corporate Communications, Mr Kayode Adegoke.

     

    Data made available by NCC in February showed that there are 303,636,267 connected GSM mobile lines in the country out of which 197,768,482 were active.

     

    The statement explained that of 125 million SIMs submitted for immediate linkage with NIN, 78 million had so far been issued unique NINs.

     

    In the past two years, the govt has shifted the period of the enforcement of the policy to ensure that subscribers were captured in the database of NIMC.

     

    The statement reads: “On behalf of the Federal Government, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, has commended Nigerians and legal residents for their support during the exercise to link the National Identification Number (NIN) to the Subscriber Identification Module (SIM).

     

    “As of date, over 125 Million SIMs have had their NINs submitted for immediate linkage, verification and authentication. Similarly, the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has issued over 78 Million unique NINs till date.

     

    “It would be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari gave the directive for the implementation and commencement of the exercise in December 2020, as part of his administration’s security and social policies.

     

    “The deadlines for the NIN-SIM linkage have been extended on multiple occasions to allow Nigerians to freely comply with the policy.

     

    “The Federal Government also took into consideration the passionate appeals by several bodies- Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), civil society groups, professional bodies and a host of others – for the extension of the deadlines in the past.

     

    “Accordingly, Mr. President graciously approved the many requests to extend deadlines for the NIN-SIM linkage. At this point, however, the government has determined that the NIN-SIM Policy implementation can proceed, as machinery has already been put in place to ensure compliance by citizens and legal residents.

     

    “The implementation impacts on government’s strategic planning, particularly in the areas of security and socio-economic projections.

     

    “President Buhari has approved the implementation of the policy with effect from the 4th of April, 2022. Consequently, the Federal Government has directed all Telcos to strictly enforce the policy on all SIMs issued (existing and new) in Nigeria.

     

    “Outgoing calls will subsequently be barred for telephone lines that have not complied with the NIN-SIM linkage policy from the 4th of April, 2022.

     

    “Subscribers of such lines are hereby advised to link their SIMs to their NINs before the Telcos can lift the restriction on their lines. Affected individuals are hereby advised to register for their NINs at designated centres and thereafter link the NINs to their SIMs through the channels provided by NIMC and the telcos, including the NIMC mobile App.”

     

    According to the statement, the minister hailed the President, telcos and others “for their support towards the success recorded.’’

     

    Pantami encouraged those yet to link their SIMs with NIN to visit the NIMC registration centres for enrollment.

     

    While announcing the extension of the timeline for the exercise in October last year, the Federal Government had said the linkage of SIMs to NINs was on “an average of three to four SIMs” adding that it was a testament to the commitment and dedication of the Federal Government, through NCC and the NIMC, to ensure the success of the project.

  • Nigerians to submit phone IDs in three months – NCC

    Nigerians to submit phone IDs in three months – NCC

    The Nigerian Communications Commission has said Nigerians will have to submit the International Mobile Equipment Identity of their phones to it from July.

    The regulatory body said this in the commission’s Revised National Identity Policy for SIM Card Registration.

    The NCC’s move to start the implementation of the Device Management System (a Centralised Equipment Identity Register) is backed by the President Muhammadu Buhari.

    A portion of the policy said, “Accordingly, His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, has directed that the Device Management System should be implemented within three months.”

    The NCC said, “With the aim to curtail the counterfeit mobile phone market, discourage mobile phone theft, enhance National Security, protect consumer interest, increase revenue generation for the government, reduce the rate of kidnapping, mitigate the use of stolen phones for crime, and facilitate blocking or tracing of stolen mobile phones and other smart devices, one of the means to achieve this is through the deployment of Device Management System.

    “The implementation of a Centralised Equipment Identity Register otherwise known as Device Management System will serve as a repository for keeping records of all registered mobile phones’ International Mobile Equipment Identity and owners of such devices.

    “IMEIs that have been reported as either stolen or illegal will be shared through the DMS to all the operators and service providers.”

    The IMEI number is the mobile phone’s fingerprint. It is a 15-digit number unique to each phone. With the IMEI number, a phone can be tracked and located irrespective of the cellular number in it.

    According to an expert that helps the Nigerian Police track stolen phones, who asked for anonymity, said, “The IMEI of a phone allows us to track the phone.

    “It allows us to track the phone’s information, people the phone calls each day and the house address of the people that call on the phone.”

    The expert added, “I can’t disclose how the IMEI of a phone works. It is sensitive information. Leaking the secret helps the people stealing the phone bypass the information.

    “Some people already try to change the IMEI of stolen phones, but we know what to do to get the original one.”

    With this move, the NCC will have the IMEI numbers, NIN, and mobile numbers of every Nigerian.

  • SIM Registration: NIMC adopts new method for NIN enrollment nationwide

    SIM Registration: NIMC adopts new method for NIN enrollment nationwide

    The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has adopted the “booking system” for applicants to obtain their National Identity Number (NIN).

    “Mindful of the second wave of the COVID-19 which continues to severely affect public health and cause unprecedented disruptions, the commission wishes to announce that it has adopted a couple of measures to contain the spread of the virus whilst ensuring its services to Nigerians are not entirely interrupted,” the NIMC began in a Tuesday statement it tagged “NIMC Adopts Booking System For NIN Enrolment.”

    “Effective December 30, 2020, attending to applicants would be based on Booking System. For Bookings, applicants are to visit any of the NIMC Offices closest to them during stipulated business hours (9 am – 1 pm).

    “Once admitted into the office, a Number-Issuing queue management system will be in place to ensure orderliness and strict adherence to Covid-19 Protocols.”

    The NIMC equally urged all NIN applicants to adhere strictly to the COVID-19 safety protocols which include wearing of facemasks, washing of hands and the observance of social distancing at all registration centres across Nigeria.

    Recall that the federal government had earlier this month mandated telecommunications operators in the country to block all Subscriber Identification Modules (SIMs) without NIN and initially gave the companies two weeks to carry out the task.

    Although the deadline was extended from December 30 to January 19, 2021, thousands of Nigerians had thronged NIMC registration centres across the nation to beat the ultimatum, defying the COVID-19 protocols amid a surge in the number of cases in the West African country.

     

  • That Zombie Order on NIN-SIM integration – Chido Nwakanma

    That Zombie Order on NIN-SIM integration – Chido Nwakanma

    By Chido Nwakanma

    Our Federal Government has gone mad again.

    It is difficult to draw any other conclusion upon news of the inexplicable FG order to telecom operators to block from their networks all users without the National Identification Number in two weeks, meaning from 30 December 2020. It has neither rhyme nor reason.

    The order only reminds one of the Not To Be Broadcast hit of the late legendary Fela Anikulapo Kuti. What thought processes informed such an order?

    Now officials of various government agencies are coming out of the woodworks with what they imagine to be clarifications.

    This time the order is from the Nigerian Communications Commission, according to a statement by its Director of Public Affairs Dr Ikechukwu Adinde. The statement is on the IMPLEMENTATION OF NEW SIM REGISTRATION RULES. It follows the directive of the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami).

    Stakeholders of the Communications industry met on Monday 14 December and agreed on this New rule on SIMs.

    “The meeting had in attendance the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Management of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), as well as the CEOs and Management staff of all service providers in the industry.”

    The December Madness thrown upon the nation by NCC is because of an alleged “need to consolidate the achievements of last year’s SIM registration audit and improve the performance and sanity of the sector”. They decided on “urgent drastic measures… to improve the integrity and transparency of the SIM registration process.”

    The Minister decided and instructed Operators to require ALL their subscribers to provide valid National Identification Number (NIN) to update SIM registration records.

    ​The submission of NIN by subscribers to take place within two weeks (from today 16 December 2020 and end by 30 December 2020).​
    After the deadline, ALL SIMs without NINs are to be blocked from the networks.
    ​
    A Ministerial Task Force comprising the Minister and all the CEOs (among others) as members is to monitor compliance by all networks.

    Violations of this directive will be met by stiff sanctions, including the possibility of withdrawal of operating license.”

    The Oxford Dictionary defines a zombie as A corpse said to be revived by witchcraft, especially in certain African and Caribbean religions. The order is a zombie, seeking to revive by word of mouth the corpse of NIN registration. The Oxford Dictionary defines a zombie as A corpse said to be revived by witchcraft, especially in certain African and Caribbean religions. ‘It has taken up to ten years without much progress. With the order of Minister Pantami, over 100 million Nigerians will suddenly succeed with their efforts at getting a NIN number! Wonderful.

    It is nothing but a power show, dangling the threat of license withdrawal on the telcos and blocking from the network on citizens. The stated rationale is too thin to justify this Draco’s Decree.

    I have a word for Minister Isa Ali Ibrahim. Think again, Sir, and reconsider this stance. Many reasons show why it is unworkable and does not cohere with rational thinking.

    There was no such requirement when citizens like me registered our SIMS. You cannot spring such a new rule on us at the end of the year and give a two-week timeline for 150 million people. The Ministry and its agencies cannot manage logistics of the registration exercise, even as they have stayed away from discussion of the modalities.

    Many citizens have tried without success to register for the NIN. I have done so thrice. One was at the Stanbic IBTC branch on Adetokunbo Ademola Street, Victoria Island. I have since tried to use the slip they issued me that day in the bank only for it to draw a null (NIN). I have done the online version—the same result.

    The order comes as workers everywhere are shutting down for the year. National Identity Management Commission has notoriously been unable to manage the national identity process for more than eight years. How will it do so in two weeks? Baffling is the fact that their CEO sat at that conference and did not own up to the logistical impossibility of such a task.

    Challenges with SIM are not like the pandemic. Even with the COVID-19 pandemic, nations spaced out the implementation of lockdown and other control measures. Speaking of which, both the Ministry and NCC want to serve as instigators for super spread of COVID-19 that will happen inevitably when people converge in large numbers at NIN centres to attempt to register for their NINs again.

    It is also curious that the Minister is compelling the telcos to do in two weeks what has taken them two decades of slowly and steadily building one success factor of the Nigerian economy. What will these draconian rules mean for a sector that the regulator and operator have built on dialogue and consultation over the last 20 years? Check the records, Sir.

    What or who is behind the drum of this emergency? To stem what really?

    The Bankers Committee worked with the Central Bank of Nigeria to implement the Bank Verification Number (BVN). It has been systematic and procedural, not knee-jerk. There is a well-articulated Regulatory Framework for Bank Verification Number Operations and Financial System Watch List. It has taken more than seven years. BVN has yet to capture all bank customers as it is work in progress.

    Minister Isa Ibrahim Pantami would in my estimation not want to be associated with governance as punishment for citizens. In case he does not know, his Integrate NIN in two weeks or lose your SIM or license is nothing but authority as hemlock. We will not drink poison. Take it away. Put together a team of thinkers to study how other nations introduce new policies and the timelines they allow for implementation.
    Please withdraw this order as quickly as you issued it.

  • Telecoms: Regulatory lessons from Teribogo – Okoh Aihe

    Telecoms: Regulatory lessons from Teribogo – Okoh Aihe

    Okoh Aihe

    Even Teribogo, the mutative character in Wole Soyinka’s Chronicles of the Happiest People on Earth, knows that to survive in a country in convoluting decadence like Nigeria, one must adjust on-the-go to fit into the prevailing colours of the times and build up enough cash and connections to last beyond a life time. So, he is Papa Davina, Dennis Tibidje, and even the Guide; some kind of personality apotheosis in continuum. Teribogo is always on the move. No condition holds him down.

    By very desperate thinking, I am of the opinion that this is the way telecommunications regulation should go. Able to mutate at any time to changing times in order to deal with ever emerging problems. Without using the hammer to squash a fly, one must say, very bluntly, that there are lots of problems in the telecommunications industry that need very urgent but creative attention.

    One of such problems, which has become very perennial, are the unregistered SIM cards still awash all over the country which, in the hands of criminal elements, have become enabling tools needed to visit criminality on a hapless citizenry. In the preceding weeks on this column, having travelled by road in parts of Delta and Edo states and being stuffed with troubling stories on how criminals negotiate with their mobile phones and putting conversation on speaker so that all could hear, we had raised a cry on the urgent need for the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) which superintends the telecommunications industry to make an intervention. There have been tons of articles written on SIM Card registration and how a seeming void in the success of the exercise has fueled the operations of hoodlums and bandits and others resident in that ignoble class of earthly misfits.

    Last week, the regulator hammered down a decision for all operators to stop issuing new SIM cards. Result, a moratorium on the sale of new SIM has been put in place until further notice. Even before I saw the press statement by the regulator, I was tipped off by a source at MTN which told me they have had to suspend sales immediately as the organization didn’t want to witness the trauma of a debilitating fine regime again.

    The NCC statement signed by Director, Public Affairs, Dr Ikechukwu Adinde, stated in part: “In line with the Federal Government desire to consolidate the achievement of the SIM Card registration exercise of September, 2019, the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy has directed the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to embark on another audit of the Subscriber Registration Database again.

    “The objective of the audit exercise is to verify and ensure compliance by Mobile Network Operators with the set quality standards and requirements of SIM Card Registration issued by the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy and the Commission.

    “Accordingly, Mobile Network Operators are hereby directed to immediately suspend the sale, registration and activation of new SIM Cards until the audit exercise is concluded, and Government has conveyed the new direction.”
    Adinde warned of strict sanctions where compliance is not strictly adhered.

    When a child has been scarred by fire even fireflies tend to make him jump. The regulator’s statement carries a dangerous punch which speed no sane operator would want to stop.

    SIM Card registration came into effect in 2011 when the Regulations on Registration of Telephone Subscribers was put in place. In a country where even the first census figures in 1962 were mired in controversy, SIM registration was seen as some kind of miracle worker to rid the country off improper documentation in that sector. Good expectations. But only MTN bore the crushing weight of the deficiencies in the exercise in 2015 when the operator was fined a staggering N1.04tn for failing to disconnect 5.1million incompletely registered SIM cards but the fine was reduced to N330bn in 2016 after negotiations. No operator wants to go down that lane anymore and face such fine.

    This is a smart and welcome move by the NCC. But something must be pointed out here at the risk of sounding like a broken record. It is not the place of the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy to “direct” the regulator on how to regulate the industry. Such action is not accommodated in the Nigerian Communications Act 2003. It is a dangerous meddlesomeness capable of exposing the regulator to ridicule, both locally and intentionally. Perhaps out of misguided exuberance, the Minister is weakening the independent pillars that form the support structure of the telecommunications industry. Willy-nilly, his actions can discourage investors from coming into the Nigerian market as no investor wants to put money in a market that is subjected to government’s direct interference.

    Having observed that there are issues in the telecommunications industry, some of them regulatory and others operational, one would be at liberty to suggest that the primary stakeholders of the industry should parley to search for solutions. This writer is not disposed to a situation of the almighty regulator holding the yam and the knife and dishing out favours and punishment at will.

    The situation in the industry calls for an emergency response and not fines. To this, I recommend the lithe touch, agile or smart regulation or as
    some people would say, fourth generation regulation; but there is fifth generation now, making fourth generation (4G) to be very ancient. However, the point at issue is for the regulator to draw on its rich repertoire of expertise, nurtured by a history of trainings and industry travels and experiences to proffer solutions instead of looking for the easy way out. Buck passing and blame game are the most popular games in a country where even the highest seats of power live in denial of their own existence, thus forcing impotence on the people in the face of pervasive tragedy and disaster.

    I may be too pessimistic to say the industry cannot survive another round of fines but needs every support and encouragement to weather the impact of COVID-19 which has hit humanity without mercy.

    These are not the best of times, not even for the regulator. This is why I am suggesting it draws a lesson from the wiliness of Teribogo to know that a constantly moving industry, brewing vermin on the side, needs fluid adaptation and regulation to arrest the scourge and ugliness of technology in order to give peace to a despairing people.
    Okoh Aihe writes from Abuja

  • Just in: NCC orders suspension of new SIM sale, registration

    Just in: NCC orders suspension of new SIM sale, registration

    The Nigerian Communications Commission has directed Mobile Network Operators to immediately suspend the sale and activation of new SIM cards to allow an audit of the Subscriber Registration Database.

    The Director, Public Affairs at NCC, Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, in a statement on Wednesday, said it was absolutely necessary for operators to comply until the audit exercise had been concluded.

    According to him, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, directed the commission to embark on an audit of the Subscriber Registration Database.

    He, however, said an exemption might be granted following approval from the Federal Government through the commission.

    He warned that non-compliance with the directive would be met with strict sanctions, including the possibility of withdrawal of operating license.

    Adinde said the audit would help to consolidate the achievement of the SIM Card registration exercise.

    The director explained that the objective of the audit exercise was to ensure compliance to set quality standards and requirements by mobile network operators.

    According to him, the directive became necessary in view of the preponderance of pre-registered SIMs with the attendant security implications associated with the use of same to facilitate criminal activities.