The Nigerian Communications Commission ( NCC ) has summoned chief executive officers of major telecommunications companies to an emergency meeting in Abuja over persistent breach of national security with pre-registered SIM cards.
NCC is calling the meeting, following incidents of the sale of pre-registered SIM cards by mobile network operators.
The Commission has been under pressure to help stop crimes committed with such SIM cards, a source told The Nation last night.
“As a first step under the stricter regime, NCC has summoned an emergency meeting of operators, on Monday, October 30th, when the executives of the big mobile network operators gather at the NCC headquarters in Abuja,” the source added.
“It is expected that they will be issued a riot act by NCC Executive Vice Chairman Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta to rein in pre-registered SIM card sale across the country,” the source, who spoke in confidence, noted.
Invitations sent to the chief executive officers of the operators pointed out that the NCC “has continued to receive complaints of pre-registered and fraudulently registered SIMs being used for acts amounting to serious breach of national security, criminality and fraud”.
The grave security implications and the distortions that may occur in the 149 million SIM data base in the country is believed to be the reason why the commission is bordered. It is set to impose not only the MTN type sanctions but will now go after the executives of culprit operators, who might face prosecution.
It was learnt that since the beginning of this year the NCC through its Compliance, Monitoring and Enforcement has been pursuing agents selling pre-registered SIM cards and imposed sanctions and fines on operators.
Several joint raids with the security agents were carried out on pre-registered SIM cards selling points in Kano, Jigawa, Abuja, Lagos and others.
Apart from the huge fine slammed on MTN in October 2015, NCC has continued to sanction the MNOs for poor compliance with SIM cards registration requirement.
Documents sighted by The Nation showed that the commission last week slammed N11 million fine on Airtel, N10 million on 9Mobile, N10 million on MTN and N5.8 million on Glo for “improperly registered and fully activated Subscription Media (SIM cards)”.
NCC late last year turned its SIM registration data base to the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) towards building a national data base of biometrics that can serve security operations.
