The Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) has said owners of SIM cards used for fraudulent activities would be made to face prosecution.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr Aminu Maida made the disclosure during a special engagement with the media in Lagos on Thursday.
The special media engagement was held to discuss Maida’s vision and strategy after spending 100 days in office.
He noted that the commission would be stepping in, as a regulator, to see the common issues that consumers are complaining about and how to resolve such problems.
“We are also going to see how we can improve the general security and integrity from the consumers’ perspective.
“The commission plans to create a platform where consumers can verify whether lines they have not used for a long time are still active or not.
“We have noticed that vicious people are targeting lines that are dormant for a long time to carry out fraud.
“Also, we want to formulate a policy to ensure that any line used to carry out fraud, the owner of that line will be prosecuted.
“So, if you are not using a particular line, it is advisable you block it,” Maida said.
Maida said the commission would focus more on being data centric, as the world was in a digital age.
He noted that as a regulator of the telecoms industry, it was necessary to leverage data to make informed decisions.
“We will be driving the collection of a lot of data from our stakeholders to project the work that we are doing, so that we can have a high level of transparency and accountability.
“Compliance is another driver we need to focus on, as a regulator that is empowered by the Nigerian Communications Act (NCA) 2003, we have the power to hold our licensees to their obligations.
“We have laid down obligations for our licensees to meet and we will ensure they uphold those obligations.
“Of course, this will require more work on the part of the regulator, so we will be deploying digitalisation, to enable us work efficiently.
“For instance, renewing of licenses can be done digitally,” Maida said.
On its licensees, he said the commission was looking at reviewing the operating standards and introducing better ones which would be more in line with international best practices and also in the area of corporate governance.
He said NCC would be leveraging technology to review regulatory services and internal processes to improve their operations.
“We are going to be doing a lot of advocacy in the areas of pushing the telecoms industry as a critical national infrastructure.
“On the right of way charges, we are working with States government to either waive the RoW charges or stick to the N145/linear charge. We are also engaging states on the issue of multiple taxation,” he said.
Maida said that the commission would also be aligning its goals with that of the minister’s blueprint.
He said that NCC’s policy was to grow the industry by increasing its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“NCC is also focusing on job creation, especially for our youth, and facilitation of cross industries collaboration. We are going to enable other industries to innovate and grow,” he said.