BY January 2010, no subscribers in Nigeria would carry phones that are not properly registered and the owner identified as the current SIM Card registration process initiated by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), at the behest of security agencies in the country, is set to take off by January next year.
Engineer Ernest Ndukwe, CEO of NCC, who disclosed this at the public hearing on SIM card registration in Abuja, requested the National Assembly to mandate the commission to speed up the process as the commission had already held wide industry consultations and consultative forum to look at all the issues involved in the process.
Ndukwe said the report of the industry wide committee which made recommendations about the process of the registration, had already submitted its report to the NCC board upon which the board approved the process. He said the draft bill under consideration can become an amendment to the Communications Act but majority of the members of the House Committee on Communications insisted that the action of the committee would still need the support of the House through proper legislation.
Ndukwe said the existing NCC law has substantial powers for the commission to implement the process with the support of the National Assembly.  He listed the lack of identity management system as a major huddle in the process but that arrangements have been reached with the National Identity Management Commission to leverage and support the process of registration that would make it possible for the registration of SIM cards to be implemented even in the rural areas.
All the operators at the public hearing, submitted to the committee that they preferred the registration process to be implemented through the regulation of the NCC, rather than a new set of laws to be enacted by the National Assembly as the law making process may not be very sensitive to time and technical requirements of such a registration process.
The operators detailed the series of consultations that have gone on in the industry since the NCC hosted consultative forum, with the participation of security agencies and other relevant bodies like the National Identity Management Commission and similar agencies.
Hon. Dave Salako, chairman of the House Committee on Communications, said it was only three days to the public hearing that the committee was informed of the level of work already done in this regard but said there is need for the parliament to play its role. Sponsor of the Bill, Hon. Akeem Arole Fancy, said non registered SIM card constitutes a threat to national security and it is time to begin and that the NCC needs the mandate of the House.
Fancy commended the commission for the great job in its contribution to the Nigerian economy through the regulation of the industry. “To us, this is one of the best regulators in this country. The NCC can continue with its process of registration that it has started but we need to strengthen them by either an amendment to the existing law, or a different law as this process is cumbersome and may require the backing of the law.”