By Sanni Onogu, Abuja
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, has disclosed the Ministry cleared about 9.2million unregistered and preregistered Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards hitherto in the country within three weeks.
Pantami said this when he appeared before the National Assembly Joint Committee on Communications and ICT to defend the Ministry’s 2020 budget proposals.
The Chairman of the Joint Committee, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, had asked the Minister to tell the committee what he is doing about proliferation of unregistered SIM cards in Nigeria and their security implications.
Tinubu also asked the Minister what he has done about the recent Unstructured supplementary Service Data (USSD) charge introduced by one of the mobile networks in the country.
Patami said while he believes that ICT should be used to improve the security and economy of the country, the situation he met on ground was that it was being used to perpetuate insecurity.
Pantami said: “Next issue is the questions raised by the Chairman of the Communications Committee, on the preregistered, unregistered and semi-registered SIMs.
“When I was appointed and assigned portfolio, by President Muhammadu Buhari, immediately I reported to the ministry and I received briefings.
“In the course of the presentation I immediately directed the NCC, looking at the security implication of unregistered SIMs or preregistered SIMs, I said we will not continue to ignore because even before I was appointed to this place , it has been worrying me that most of the crimes being committed in Nigeria, either in the process of coordination or committing SIM cards were involved.
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“And I felt, whatever we do as a government, protection of lives and property of Nigerians should be our priority. Any other issue should be secondary.
“I mentioned this to them clearly that under my leadership I will not allow that to continue. If there is anything that should be our priority it is for us to make use of ICT to promote the security of Nigeria.
“But the situation I inherited, ICT was being used to compromise the security of Nigeria because people planning to make any attack or robbery, usually coordinate using SIM cards.
“When Nigerians are kidnapped, people negotiate what to be paid, using SIM cards. And I think this is something that should not be tolerated. We should not allow our platforms to be used for that.
“So I ask them immediately to go and begin or conclude audit exercise. Without audit exercise, we will not be able to know, the total number of unregistered/preregistered SIM cards.
“That figure was not available by the time I joined the Ministry and I gave them only one week to conclude that audit exercise.
“The did so and they came forward with around 9.2million preregistered, unregistered or partially registered SIMs. With this number definitely it was difficult for us to curtail any crime committed in the country.
“So I gave them another two week to announce to all Nigerians to come forward and conclude their registration. If it is incomplete, you have two weeks to complete. If it is preregistered, you need to come forward and present your bio data and all the information required to complete it. After that period the number was reduced to 2.4million.
“Then that 2.4million I gave them another one week and I said by 25th of September 2019, you should make sure that that there is no unregistered, preregistered or partially registered sim on our networks in Nigeria. All these 2.4million should either be blocked or deactivated.
“Whoever comes forward to present the necessary information then you can activate, deactivate or de-block his number. This is based on result presented to me on 26th September 2019.
“They have carried out the assignment and they presented a reporter me that as at 26th September 2019, there wasn’t any unregistered or preregistered sim being used in Nigeria.
“And I forwarded another letter to them that whenever a crime is committed, in which SIM is involved, we have informed security agencies to let us know. I will give you the number used to commit the crime and you only 60 minutes to produce the details and information with regards to that.
“And if you fail to do that definitely the operators must be sanctioned. Because this has been the agreement with them. And I will not tolerate that henceforth.
“To date I don’t have any information contrary to the directives we have given and I want to assure this committees that I know the provisions of the Section 4 Constitution which is all about the protection of life and property. That will be our priority and we want to make use of ICT to improve that.”
On the now suspended Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) charge, which was introduced by one of the mobile network operators in the country, the Minister said: “What actually happened was that on Sunday, I woke up and I saw very peaceful protest by Nigerians that the tax and deductions by mobile operators is becoming unbearable.
“And what I did immediately was to reach out to the regulatory agency, that is the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and asked them to put it hold because based on Federal Government directives, any change of major policy, there is need for the approval of Mr. President.
“And this is one of the documents I have given to all the heads of parastatals under my ministry that whenever you want to come up with any policy, even if you feel the policy is legitimate and legal, there is need for us to seek the consent of Mr. President on that policy.
“Secondly, certain policies requires creating aware of what is going to happen. But for people to just wake up in the morning and see a new policy where their money is going to be deducted, I think it was a wrong decision.
“So, I immediately asked them to put it on hold, and brief me officially on what actually happened. And I reached out also to the Central Bank of Nigeria officially and asked them what happened because based on the information I received mobile operators were asked to do that on behalf of banks in Nigeria.
“I asked them but could not get sufficient information. Even the leadership of the bank felt maybe it was not their approval and it was not what they deliberated on in their subsequent meetings.
“So, because of this we put this on hold and I am talking (Thursday) to you, yesterday we even announced its cancellation because there wasn’t any justification given to us.
“If Banks are willing to deduct they may wish to go ahead and do so from the accounts of their customers but in the situation where you asked mobile operators to do, banks are trying to maintain their own good relationship with their customers while destroying the relationship of a mobile operator.
“So that is why we feel even if there is anything to be done, let us be between the customers on the one hand and the banks on the other.
“So that our platform or our supervision could not be used in any way to put unnecessary burden on Nigerians which would also be an unjust one.
“Yesternight I also received complaints from other Nigerians that in spite of the directives, a day before yesterday some of their money was taken away from their accounts through that.
“Yesterday evening I also wrote another letter to the regulatory agency directing them to investigate the complaints and if they find any one of them to have committed that or to have ignored our directives the. necessary sanction should be placed on him.
“And this is my last directive to NCC yesternight and I hope they will soon investigate and come forward with the result of their investigation and we assure you as along as we find any thing that has been done illegally or unjustly we will not ignore it.
“Protecting the interest of Nigerians will be our priority as it has been the priority of these respected Committees,” he said.
On the change of name of the Ministry to Ministry of Communications and Digital economy, Pantami said the action was meant to reposition the ministry to be able to coordinate the ICT sector to contribute to the nation’s economy.
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