Number (NIN) for update on SIM registration records from two to 10 weeks.
This followed the amendment of a motion of urgent public importance which also mandated the House Committee on Communications to ensure compliance, sponsored by Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu, at plenary.
Moving the motion, Elumelu noted that NCC is the independent body saddled with the responsibilities of regulating telecommunications services and facilities, promoting competition and setting performance standards for telecoms operators in Nigeria, with the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy as the supervisory ministry.
He said in January 2020 the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy issued a statement wherein telecom subscribers were mandated to get their NIN and submit to the network operators, with the aim of ascertaining the true identities of all subscribers and thereby blocking loopholes currently being exploited by unscrupulous individuals.
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The lawmaker said he was “aware that at a stakeholders meeting convened on the 15th day of December 2020 by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Patami, the federal government issued a statement signed by the director of public affairs NCC Dr Ikechukwu Adinde, wherein it stated that any telecom subscriber who fails to submit his /her National Identity Number to its network provider would be blocked from the network with effect from December 31st 2020”.
He said he was “concerned that as laudable as the idea behind the policy may seem, the timing is very wrong because Nigerians have not been properly sensitized, as only a few educated persons who bother to read the dailies might have heard about this instructions”.
“Therefore, trying to enforce this policy in a period where most Nigerians are gearing up for Christmas festivities may lead to stampede in the process of rushing to get registered which could lead to unnecessary death and injuries,” Elumelu said.
He said he was “further concerned that if the NCC is allowed to carry out these directives, it will bring about untold hardship as millions of subscribers will be disconnected this yuletide period which could spell disaster in an already volatile nation like ours”.
“Worried that if the NCC is not urgently called to halt their plans there may be unnecessary panic in the country which may lead to exploitation of vulnerable Nigerians, thereby causing more pains in an already pathetic situation, hence the need to urgently wade into this impending crisis,” he said.
