The Nigerian Communications
Commission (NCC) has proposed a fine of N200,000 for telecommunications
companies that fail to verify and validate biometric, National Identity Number
(NIN) and other personal information of subscribers.
This is contained in a proposed
draft regulation on registration of telephone subscribers 2021 published on
NCC’s website.
The federal government had asked
Nigerians to enrol for NIN and link their unique number to the phone lines.
Since the announcement in 2020,
an extension of the deadline for NIN registration and subscriber identity
module (SIM) integration exercise has taken place at least six times.
January 19, 2021 was the initial
deadline, but it was moved to February 9, April 6, May 6, June 30, July 26 and
now October 31.
Section 19 of the draft document,
NCC said mobile communications services providers must ensure that NINs are
verified and validated before activation.
It said a penalty of N200,000
awaits those who breach the requirement.
A similar penalty has been
proposed for telcos that fail to register subscribers with the central database
as well as those who activate subscriptions without appropriate registration of
such subscribers.
“Any licensee who fails to
capture, or who preregisters, register, deregister or transmit the details of
any individual or corporate subscribers to the Central Database as specified in
these Regulations or as may be stipulated from time to time by the Commission
is liable to a penalty of N200,000.00 for each subscription medium,” the draft
reads.
“A licensee who activates any
Subscription Medium without capturing, registering and transmitting the
personal information to the Central Database commits an offence and shall on
conviction be liable to a fine of N200,000.00 for each unregistered activated
Subscription Medium.
“A Licensee who fails to verify
and validate biometric, NIN and other personal information before activation is
liable to a penalty of N200, 000 for each subscription medium in breach of
these requirements.”
In October 2015, NCC slammed
fines on all mobile phone operatorsslammed fines on all mobile phone operators
over the non-compliance with SIM deactivation directive.
The regulator had said it fined
Globacom N7.4 million, Etisalat (now 9mobile) N7 million, Airtel N3.8 million,
and MTN N102.2 million.
MTN later got a fine of N1.04
trillion for not deactivating 5.1 million unregistered lines.
The fine was eventually reduced
to N330 billion with a condition that MTN will list on the Nigerian Stock
Exchange (NSE) — a condition that has now been met by the telco.
MTN first paid N275 billion and
completed the balance of N55 billion in May 2019.
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