In line with the ultimatum issued by the Minister of Communications, Dr Ali Pantami, on Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards with incomplete registration, the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) has ensured that all affected SIM card numbers have been blocked.
Dr Pantami had issued a directive to the NCC that no improperly registered SIM card number should remain active beyond 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, September 25.
According to the report submitted by the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Professor Umar Danbatta, on Thursday, a total of 2,277,311 improperly-registered lines have been blocked.
Dr Pantami reiterated the need for all improperly registered SIM cards to remain blocked until they are properly registered.
He also directed that the profiles of persons linked to crimes aided and abetted by the use of SIM cards, should be promptly provided to the relevant security agencies when requested and a copy be sent to him for monitoring.
It will be recalled that some telecoms companies have been sending text messages to subscribers to approach their offices with means of identification to ‘properly’ register their SIMS, failure which they would be yanked off their networks.
Although Pantami did not mention any particular service provider in the telecoms industry about this directive, consumers have complained that they registered their SIM cards with approved agents of the major telecoms companies, only to be told later that there are problems with the SIMs.