At the inauguration of the registration of Subscriber Identity Module cards in the country on March 28, the Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission, Dr. Eugene Juwah, advised subscribers to avoid last minute rush.
Juwah said, no person was exempted from the registration, adding that any SIM card not registered within the period for the exercise would be cut off from the telecommunications networks.
Juwah said the exercise would help to reduce the number of crimes facilitated by telecommunications as well as gather data that were essential for the planning and implementation of government programmes.
He said, “This event is very significant in many ways. First, this nation has been waiting for the day when all the SIM cards in use in the country are registered, and the identity of the owner of every line is known.
“Another significance of this is the achievement of a central data base for all mobile phone users in Nigeria.
“Today, therefore, marks a major step taken by the NCC to bequeath to the nation an important tool, a pool of data that will assist other government agencies, especially the security agencies and the National Identity Management Commission, in carrying out their jobs in the national interest.”
Juwah also said, “The registration exercise will last for a period of six months and registration centres will be deployed all over the country and all subscribers will find a centre close to their abode to register their SIM cards.
“No Nigerian or visitor to Nigeria using mobile phones is exempt from this exercise. At the end of six months of this registration, all unregistered SIM cards will be disconnected from the various networks.”
But his advice that subscribers should avoid last minute rush could not be helped by the fact that there were few registration centres at the beginning of the exercise, which were not known to many people.
To complement the efforts of operators, NCC had on February 7 signed contracts with seven firms to help in the registration of SIM cards across the country.
The contractors are SW Global for the South-East region – Anambra, Enugu, Abia, Ebonyi, and Imo states; PNN for the North-Central region – Abuja, Plateau, Benue, Niger, Kogi, Kwara and Nassarawa states; Chams for Lagos; and JKK for the South-West region – Oyo Osun, Ogun, Ekiti and Ondo states.
Others are DATAGROUPIT for the North-East region – Yobe, Borno, Gombe, Bauchi, Adamawa and Taraba states; Eagle/CBC for the North West region – Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Kano and Jigawa; and E-Kenneth/SageMetrics for the South-South – Cross River, Delta, Edo, Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Bayelsa states.
Gradually, however, the rollout of more registration centres has enhanced of the exercise. The usual intense competition among operators of Global System for Mobile Communications has also helped.
Today, subscribers are being offered some rewards by network operators in order to encourage them to register their SIM cards within the window provided by the industry regulatory agency.
A particular mobile operator has reportedly been calling its high net worth subscribers to encourage them to present themselves for the registration.
This is understandable, given that many subscribers are known to have several SIM cards and the registration exercise could provide them the opportunity to dump networks they perceive as not performing.
A subscriber based in Abuja, Mr. George Akanbi, confirmed to our reporter that registration centres were now everywhere.
He added that the exercise was going on smoothly without any delay. According to him, those that wait for the last minute may be subjected to long queues in their bid to beat the rush.
He urged the NCC and the operators to emphasise in their campaign that subscribers also needed to register the SIM card of their Internet modems.
He said many subscribers were not aware that the modems required registration.
As the September 28 deadline for the registration exercise draws near, other issues have come to the fore. They are the sale of activated SIM cards as well as the sale of pre-registered SIM cards, which the NCC warned subscribers against last week.
In a statement in Abuja, the NCC’s Head, Media and Public Relations, Mr. Reuben Muoka, said the act of selling preregistered new SIM cards to members of the public by vendors or retailers, and the use of such cards by anybody contravened the regulation on registration of phone subscribers.
Muoka said any persons selling such cards were liable on conviction to a fine, or imprisonment, or both, in line with the Nigerian Communications Act 2003.
According to him, the NCC will also hold the network service providers liable when such cards are found to be in use as they are expected to ensure that new SIM cards are not preregistered before they are sold to members of the public through their various channels.
Muoka said the ongoing SIM card registration exercise presupposed that all newly purchased SIM cards could only receive calls while the buyers were expected to go to their network provider to register their own SIM cards.
He said those found to be involved in the illegality would face arrest, detention, investigation, prosecution and sanction in line with the provisions of the Communications Act.
The NCC spokesman warned the public to desist from buying preregistered SIM as they would also be liable if such line was in any way connected to any crime or misuse.
He said, “Members of the public are advised to go to their operators to register their new SIM cards. Do not be tempted to buy preregistered new SIM card when the registration is free.”
He added that the NCC had intensified efforts to educate the public on the need to register their SIM cards before the expiration of the registration exercise on September 28, 2011.
