NCC Pushes SIM Registration, Says It’s Free

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has moved to enforce compliance with the registration of Subscribers Identification Module (Sim) cards and said that the service is free, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek has learnt.
According to the apex regulatory body, subscribers are not expected to pay the service providers for the registration of their new sim cards.
In the specifications and guidelines NCC said that “with effect from May 1st 2010, prospective subscribers who obtain new sim card from any of the service providers are required to be duly registered before activation. Registration requires submission of personal data, digital photographs taken at the point of registration and biometrics information for the completion of the process.”
Dave Imoko, director, Public Affairs of the NCC said that “those who obtain such cards without registration may face the risk of non-activation after they have acquired the new sim card.”
According to him, prospective subscribers are requested to contact their service providers for further details.
There are nearly 85 million active phone lines in the country. Over 90 percent of these are mobile lines and over 90 percent of these are not properly registered.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that sim card registration was initiated to have a proper record of phone users for security reasons, so that in the event of the use of a phone for criminal or other anti-social conduct, the user can be traced.