FG raises alarm over huge unregistered SIM cards

The Federal Government has raised the alarm over the high number of unregistered SIM cards in the country, saying the security implication that occasions the development was too grave to be ignored.

Accordingly, the government has directed the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the telecoms regulatory body, to ensure holders of unregistered SIM cards register same on or before September 25th.

The Minister of Communications, Isa Pantami, gave the directive Monday in his office in Abuja, at the inauguration of the new board of the NCC.

BusinessDay recalls that the minister had earlier expressed worries over the NCC’s baseline short-term performance targets report., which the commission submitted last.

In the report, the NCC had disclosed that an estimated 9.2 million incomplete/unregistered sim cards were in use in the country.

The number has, however, been reduced to 2.4 million cards.

“We believe that on the 25th September, 2019 we don’t want to have single incomplete registration of sim cards in Nigeria. So the remaining 2.4 should be rectified by September 25th.

“In that direction, we want the management to immediately inform the telecoms. After 25th of September if a crime is committed and sim is used, we only need the number of that sim from the regulator to know the identity of the person who committed the crime. With that a lot will be achieved. We will submit the identity to the security agencies”, the minister said.

Thus was as Pantami maintained that most criminal activities were facilitated by unregistered SIM cards.

His words: “From investigations, 99 per cent of crime committed in Nigeria, sim card is involved. Before you think of any economic benefits, the constitutional responsibility of the executive is the protection of lives and properties.

So the life of one innocent Nigerian is more important than any revenue the Federal Government may get as a result of engineering the implementation or registration of sim cards because you cannot think of any economic benefit if the person is not alive.”

The minister, nonetheless, expressed satisfaction with the reduction in number of incomplete/unregistered SIM cards, saying the reduction within this period is 73.6 per cent.

Chairman Governing Board Olabiyi Durojaiye, who spoke on behalf of the other board members said that the board would make sure that every Nigerian was protected from any form of cybercrimes.

“We are duty bound to do the best we can. All that is going on, we are going to win and the criminals will loose in the end.

“We have a robust plan to extend connectivity to all 774 Local Governments, we need your full cooperation on how to reach out to all the nooks and crannies of this country through communication links,”he said.