On the 13th of September, the Minister of Communications, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, directed Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) to block all unregistered and preregistered sim cards.
This has been in a bid to quell criminal activities perpetrated using unregistered and preregistered sim cards that make it difficult to trace subscribers.
The NCC has responded to the directive by providing the number of unregistered sims in use around the country. And to the shock of many, it’s a staggering 9.2 million phone users who cannot be held responsible in case they use their numbers for criminal reasons.
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It’s upon this discovery that Pantami gave the marching order to NCC to ensure that network providers block all sim cards that are not properly registered. He expressed disappointment that a situation like that could be tolerated in the face of challenging security issues, noting that the implication of the government’s inaction could mean further national security crisis.
However, there have been overwhelming cooperation with the directive. In a statement issued by the Ministry of Communication and signed by Pantami, on Monday, the Minister said there has been a drastic reduction in the numbers.
“As at last week, we had 9.2 million preregistered sim cards in Nigeria. Based on the directive I gave to NCC, I am pleased to inform you that as at today, the figure has dropped to 2.4 million.” He said in the statement.
The Communication Minister has however, given NCC up to September 25 to cut off the remaining 2.4 million unregistered subscribers.
Network providers have urged subscribers to ascertain their sim cards registration status using these codes:
MTN – *789*1#
Airtel – *746#
9mobile – *746# or *200#
Glo – text 746 to 3456