Director, Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Efosa Idehen, has explained why people are still having challenges after linking their SIM with their National Identification Number (NIN).
Speaking during an introductory meeting with journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, Idehen said before the linkage, there was a SIM registration.
He explained that by 2021 when the NIN-SIM linkage was launched, the previous ones were considered as Legacy SIMs, and Nigerians were told to link up their SIMs to their NIN.
“NCC recently directed Telecom operators to deactivate any SIM that is linked to NIN, and that enforcement notice is still on, we are working at the background, what we discovered was that the background most times, the picture quality of the legacy SIM did not match the definition in our new SiM registration of 2021,” Idehen said.
“Initially, they were barring them but now, they just invite you to come and update your data because we want to be sure that whoever is holding a SIM is the owner of that SIM.”
He pointed out that the issue of illegal registered SIM cards is still there and the Commission is working to reduce the occurrence to the barest minimum so that Nigerians can sleep with their two eyes closed.
Also speaking at the event, the Executive Commissioner, Technical Services, Ubale Maska explained that the country is not where it should be in terms of broad, penetration and quality of service.
Maska attributed this to persistent vandalization of telecommunication infrastructure in the country.
He disclosed that on a daily basis in the country, major operators suffer 70 cable cuts on daily.
Also, he stated that some fibers are damaged during road construction projects which affect quality of service.
Speaking further, Maska said investments on Fibre optic network is not coming as expected due to economic situation in the country.
He added that the commission is considering deployment of satellite broadband to provide the necessary coverage across the country and drive the attainment of the National Broadband target.
