The House of Representatives has asked the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) to prevail on the GSM providers to stop selling already purchased SIM cards to other customers as it exposes the original owners to untold risk.
This followed a motion by Hon. Boniface Sunday Emerengwa on the practice by GSM providers to reassign already purchased SIM cards to new subscribers with the detailed information of the first owner.
Hon. Emerengwa reminded the House that Global Service for Communication (GSM) came into Nigeria in 2001 with Econet (now Airtel) and MTN as the first providers, adding that the advent of GSM enables Nigerians to have access to a variety of different services that were never possible or contemplated in the past such as Mobile Banking Services.
He said GSM has helped to improve the business environment, thereby providing ease of doing business in the country.
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According to him, that SIM registration began in April 2010 upon directives from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to track subscribers in the possible event of an abuse of usage.
He stressed that the SIM registration entails the personal information and submission of individual biometric scans which are retained in the SIM by the Provider.
He expressed concern that the SIM cards paid for by individuals, but not in use for six months are resold to another subscriber by the service providers.
According to him, after the registration of a fresh subscriber of a pre registered SIM, the details of the earlier subscriber still show when exposed to truecaller app.
He disclosed that bank alerts of the old.
subscribers are sent to the new subscriber and vice-versa, thereby exposing the customers to huge financial risk; particularly under the growing regime of ‘yahoo boys’.