ABUJA, AUGUST 16, 2016 – Some mobile phone SIM card traders in Nigeria are still selling lines without registering purchasers, fuelling telecommunications violations and criminality, according to Daily Trust.Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) have however put up spirited defences; but SIM cards are indeed activated on purchase, suggesting they are recognised by service providers
Deolu Ogunbanjo, president, National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS) said NCC and the operators should investigate their agents and sanction them.
It is unclear how the vendors secure the lines.
Daily Trust reporter who was at Wuse market in Abuja, bought a particular network’s line from a vendor who took his bio data and ‘registered’ him.
The vendor told him he could use the line for few hours pending proper registration from the network provider’s office.
Also vendors at Area 1 sell SIMs to people and get them registered for temporary use.
Our reporter bought another SIM card at this area and was able to make call with it for a few hours before he was asked by the network providers to register it or risk being barred.
A phone user, Bakare Abdulateef, told our reporter he made use of his SIM card after he purchased it from a vendor in Wuse.
Abdulateef, who said he did not know that SIM registration done by the vendors was not valid, explained that he was shocked to get a message from his network provider to register the line in its offices or risk being barred.
“But I had already made some calls and did some other things with the phone before this message came,” he told our reporter.
Another subscriber, who simply identified herself as Hajia, also said she bought a SIM and was able to make some calls with it before she got a message to register it. She said: “I don’t think this is
Reacting to the development, Mr Sonny Aragba-Akpore, NCC’s head of media said it was not true that unregistered SIM cards were sold in the open market.
He said the commission had already warned operators of severe sanctions if any of them was found contravening the SIM registration directive.
But an NCC official who asked not to be named told our reporter that “it is not impossible this is taking place but we will investigate. You know Nigerians are very difficult people, it is not impossible to see people doing it…”
Also Gbolahan Awonuga, ALTON secretary, said no one could have done that because NCC had already forbidden it.
“I don’t think so. Our vendors were doing that before, but they had since stopped. I know of some operators who even sanctioned the vendors. We have completely and collectively complied with the NCC directive now,” he said.
Elsewhere, Deolu Ogunbanjo, of NATCOMS believed the practice of allowing customers to make calls with a registered SIM card for few hours before it is barred would jeopardise the lofty aim behind the SIM registration exercise.
Recall the federal government was forced to impose a hefty fine on South African owned telecoms firm, MTN, after it was discovered that the sale of unregistered SIM cards by the company aided the terrorist group, Boko Haram, to continue to kill Nigerians.
