Daily Independent (Lagos)
Emma Okonji
27 October 2008
Lagos — The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has reiterated its commitment to control phone theft as well the rampant use of mobile phones in defrauding and threatening of lives.
The Commission said it has almost concluded arrangements to commence registration of SIM cards and the registration of individual mobile phones, aimed at getting the data and profiles of all Nigerians who own and operate a mobile phone.
At the end of the registration exercise, it will become absolutely difficult for any body to steal a mobile phone and still make use of it on any of the networks, and it will become easy to trace the identity of people who use the mobile phones to perpetrate all kinds of evil, including threat to lives, the Commission said.
Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Ernest Ndukwe who disclosed the plans in Lagos at the just concluded ComBIT exhibition and conference, organized by the Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), said the measure is aimed at raising security standard that will protect the over 55 million telecom subscribers in the country.
According to Ndukwe, the plan is such that everybody would have been registered before the middle of next year. The committee on SIM card registration set up by NCC has submitted its report, and the company that will handle the registration has been named and it is currently putting the final arrangement in place with the operating companies, Ndukwe said.
Although he explained that the identity card system for the country is another area that needs to be looked into, since Nigeria does not have an identity card data system, he said the NCC has opened discussion with the Nigerian Identity Management System to begin the process of having an identity data bank for the country.
He gave instances with Sweden, where a child is registered and given an identity number as a child the child is born. The child grows up with the registration number and uses it for all transactions, including his educational training.
Ndukwe assured that by the time all these are put in place, the Commission will commence registration of both SIM cards and mobile phones, which he assured, would be completed at the end of June, 2009. The Commission, he said, will not wait until an identity data base is completed before commencing on the registration of SIM cards and mobile phones, but will rather begin with whatever data is available on ground.
ATCON was the first to come up with the idea of SIM card registration early this year, and had called a press conference to intimate the public on the need for SIM card registration in the country. According to Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, president of ATCON, the issue bothers on security of individual subscribers and the economy. He called on relevant bodies to as a matter of urgency, work towards such registration in order to save Nigerians from further embarrassment on phone theft and the use of mobile phone to threaten lives, without tracing those behind such crimes.
Now that the NCC has taken it upon itself to implement, as a telecom regulatory body, Ekuwem said NCC deserves commendation.
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