By Prince Osuagwu
Since some members of the house of representatives, penultimate week,  shot down the N6.1 billion Naira budget of the Nigerian Communication Commission, NCC on SIM card registration, every who is who in the ICT sector has raised his voice against the act.

Titi Omo-Ettu

However, the voices are pointing to the need that the national assembly should understand that the SIM card registration is tied to the efforts at nipping the insecurity in Nigeria in the bud.

The arguments are that if took  security agencies investigating the recent bomb blasts in Abuja to go through a gamut of short message services and Voice calls numbering up to 700 before coming up with enough evidence to back up why a group of suspects should be taken to court, it is imperative that every subscriber must be identified.

From the President of Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria, ATCON, Engr Titi Omo-Ettu to the Chairman of Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, ALTON, Engr Gbenga Adebayo, President of Nigeria Internet Group, NIG, Engr Lanre Ajayi and a whole lot of others, the reasoning is that the national assembly should play down on the issue of money attached to the budget and consider the relief SIM registration would bring about in the nations strained security system.

See the way they saw it: Engr Titi Omo_Ettu,  “the NCC has a role to play in the registration of telephone subscribers, however if the House of Representative thinks the NCC does not have a role, amen. But Telephone Subscriber Registration is clearly the duty of NCC, There is no ambiguity on that.

It is the only institution that can ensure the collation and preservation of accurate and useful data on registration and in a manner that it deems fit. Subscriber Registration data is a national asset and the institution to keep it must be one whose remit is enshrined in statute. That is why we established NCC at a time which pre_dates private investment in telecommunications. However note, I said ‘Telephone Subscriber Registration’ and not ‘SIM Card Registration’?

“Subscriber Registration is the documentation of the telephone lines that are in use against the names and full identity of those who have purchased them for use. Our own emphasis is on getting a perfect record of all things that happen in the network including the identity of all users of all facilities. We need this type of information to manage today, and to plan for the future.

To use the aspect of it that can help confront terrorism, kidnapping, harassment  and to also use it as a component of planning our national life, health, education, transport etc”.

Engr Gbenga Adebayo: “The House of Reps erred by throwing out the N6.1 billion budget. “Its a major setback for the entire process and will make a mess of the extensive consultation and work done by all stake holders over the past three years on SIM registration.

Considering the huge capital outlay required by operation in the face of our numerous challenges as an industry; it will not be possible for operators to bear the cost of registering old subscribers on the national network”.

Ken Ugbechie, Executive Secretary, African Telecom Development Initiative, ATDI : On behalf of ATDI, I would like to advised the House to re_consider its stand in view of the dire security situation in the country. SIM card registration is gaining ascendancy all over the world in the wake of niggling terror attacks and rising wave of technology_enhanced crimes and Nigeria cannot afford to play the Ostrich in such matter.

“NCC had asked the telecom operators to ensure that all new subscribers in their respective networks were duly registered before their phones can be activated after the operators admitted that registration of all old customers would take a minimum of two years. But two years was too long against the backdrop of increasing acts of terror and criminality across the country. They recommended a marshal plan that would guarantee the registration of both old and new SIMs in a matter of months.

This compelled the commission to propose the use of SIM registration solution providers who would register only the old subscribers while the operators would concentrate on fresh applicants.

Under the new arrangement, the operators would register all fresh subscribers at no cost to the subscribers while the SIM card registration solution providers would register the existing subscribers, again, at no cost to the subscribers. All the collated data would be domiciled in a central database which would be segregated across electronic communication service systems and housed within the NCC. This makes all the collated data a property of the Federal Government.

“This is the best option for the nation in view of escalating trend of technology_enhanced acts of criminality. It will make access to information by security operatives easy rather than the practice of applying to telecom operators which negates urgency and the secrecy required in criminal investigations.

“If the nation could spend as much as N87 billion for the automation of voters register, what is N6 billion for the registration of phone users in the country especially when such exercise would drastically check the growing spate of kidnapping, acts of terror and sundry security anxieties?”

However, Engr Lanre Ajayi, President of the Nigerian Internet Group (NIG) differed a bit saying that those who argue that onus of registering telecom service users lies on the shoulders of service providers were also making sense. For him, there is the need to manage the country’s resources, otherwise, even if the government wants to carry out the registration, it can as well wait for the next two months when INEC will have completed voters’ registration since they are using the same equipment.

“Why duplicate efforts, waste resources, and don’t prioritize? That is the problem we have. We are not spending on things we should spend on. No funds for primary school education. There is no library in secondary schools.

Things are not working in our tertiary institutions of learning, just because resources are being wasted. Yes let the service providers handle voters’ registration or NCC wait to use the INEC equipment after the voters registration”.