About 2.4 million unregistered sims in Nigeria risk deactivation on Wednesday 25th September, following the directive from the Minister of Communications to the National Communications Commission (NCC).
Recall that the Minister of Communications, Dr Isa Pantami on 16th September, this year, issued an ultimatum to the NCC to ensure that all unregistered sims or sims with incomplete registration were rectified or risk deactivation.
Before the ultimatum, the number of SIM cards with incomplete registration in Nigeria dropped from 9.2 million to 2.4 million in less than 10 days.
Pantani, however, mandated the NCC to ensure that before 25th September this year, that the remaining 2.4 million SIM cards with incomplete registration be rectified.
The Minister while decrying the rate at which SIM cards were used to commit crimes, said when these numbers are rectified, any crime which is committed with SIM cards could be traced to the owner of the SIM.
He said: “By 25th September 2019, we don’t want to have single incomplete registration, so the remaining 2.4 million should be rectified by 25th September 2019.
“In that direction, we want the Management to immediately inform the telecoms, after 25th of September when a crime is committed, and sim is being used, we only need the number of the SIM and convey it to the regulator, within an hour, we want to get the details of the person that committed the crime, even if that cannot stop people from committing crime, what we just want is the identity of the person that committed the crime, if we can do that, I think a lot can be achieved.”
Meanwhile, Dr Pantami while commissioning the National Emergency Toll-Free Number (112) and the Commissioning of the Katsina State Emergency Communications Center in Katsina State, on Monday, maintained that the 25th September deadline stands.
The Minister stated that appropriate measures have been put in place to ensure that if a crime is committed using a SIM card, the perpetrator would be identified within 60 minutes.
