In a bid to prevent GSM mobile fraud in Nigeria, the telecommunications regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has introduced a SIM card registration system.
The Director of NCC’s Consumer Affairs Bureau, Mrs Lolia Emakpore, said on Friday in Lagos, during the NCC Telecoms Consumer Parliament that the exercise would commence in March 2010.
Emokpore said that the registration would start simultaneously in the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria and would last for six months for existing subscribers.
She said the Commission and telecommunications stakeholders had held a series of meetings and agreed on the March date.
She said prior to such meetings, the NCC had received a lot of reports on the use of telephones for unscrupulous activities.
The director said that there were also a lot of suggestions and requests that SIM cards should be registered as was the case in some countries.
“We have decided that it is about time to have this done,’’ she said.
Emakpore advised that consumers should endeavor to register their SIM cards before the six months deadline if they did not want to be barred from using them.
According to her, six months is sufficient for the registration of the already existing 70 million subscribers, as necessary modalities have been put in place to ensure its success.
She also said that consumers would not to pay for the registration, as the Commission and operators would bear the cost.
The operators present at the forum promised subscribers of smooth and stress-free registration.
The theme of the forum was “SIM Card Registration : a Necessity For Curbing Telecoms Crime’’.
Source African Press Agency
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This will be a major hassle.But I think all countried should do this..even for prepaid phones.Criminals use them as disposable phones since they are pretty much untracable!Imagine how much crime could be stopped if prepaid phones had to have a name attatched to them
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