The move to curb criminal activities perpetrated with mobile phones, recorded another success in Abuja last week, when the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, the Nigerian security and intelligence agencies, and major telecom operators reached a consensus for immediate implementation of a nationwide registration of all existing and prospective prepaid mobile phone lines.

The consensus was reached at a consultative forum hosted by the NCC, for the operators; at the request of the security agencies who have noted that those criminal activities have become a major concern, as disclosure of users’ identities are not demanded at the time of purchase.

Consequently, an action committee consisting of the NCC, the operators, the security operatives, the media and other relevant bodies was set up to work out the modalities and timelines for immediate implementation of the scheme. The committee is to present its report within four weeks.

Prepaid mobile phone subscribers are those who use Pay-As-You-Go type of GSM and CDMA mobile services, and can buy their Sim Packs from street corners and shops without proper identification.

Their Post Paid counterparts usually meet stringent identification conditions that make them traceable. But with the new development, all users of telephone services in Nigeria must be identifiable and traceable.

Engr. Ernest Ndukwe, executive vice chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission, who presided over the consultative forum confirmed that the objective of the meeting was to discuss the need for the registration of Sim Cards by pre-paid subscribers and the methodology of carrying out the registration exercise, both for new and current subscribers.

He said "this is the first effort to systematically hold a discourse on the subject and results of the consultative meeting are intended to contribute to an evidence-based policy guideline on a practical regulatory regime on registration of pre-paid Sim Cards and to ensure that mobile services remain a tool for social and economic development."

Ndukwe intimated that the Commission has been deliberating on this issue for sometime now, having received complaints from security agencies expressing concern about the use of mobile phones to commit crimes and the difficulty in tracking down the perpetrators who take advantage of unregistered Sim Cards especially for prepaid consumers.

"It is a widely held opinion that every technological development has provided a new opportunity for criminality and the introduction of cellular mobile telephone services is no exception. As part of an ongoing holistic security review by the Government, the Commission by this consultative meeting plans to work together with all network operators who issue Sim Cards to subscribers to agree on a workable regulatory regime."

"With the latest development, a definite time frame will be set when operators are required to ensure compliance in recording the personal details of all customers who buy prepaid SIM Cards while subscribers can continue to use their pre-paid SIM Cards if they register their particulars with their mobile operators during the registration period," said he.

He added that unregistered prepaid cards may be deactivated by the deadline of the registration period and listed Singapore, Australia, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Norway, Switzerland and South Africa as countries where such actions have taken place before.

Ndukwe observed that prepaid Sim Card is an area of security concern. "Criminals exploit the anonymity of prepaid Sim Cards to avoid detection. The Industry must address this problem urgently as there are about fifty (50) million active prepaid SIM cards in circulation in Nigeria as at May 2008."

He identified one of the challenges to the success of this project to be non-existence of National identification for majority of Nigerians and regretted that attempts by the Federal Government to provide National Identity Cards in the past have proved abortive but that the Commission would go on with the project as it may be the catalyst for the development of a credible national data base.

"We believe that if properly managed and administered, the data base will be a veritable source of information not only for the sector but for the business and financial sectors of the economy."