‘You Can’t Have More Than 3 SIMs’, FG Tells Nigerians

…New SIM policy makes NIN mandatory

The Federal Government has barred telecommunications subscribers from registering more than three Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards.

This is part of a revised SIM registration policy ordered by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami.

Nigeria’s mobile subscriptions stood at 184.4 million as of December 2019. However, many subscribers typically own more than one line. Indeed, in some cases, subscribers in search of better quality service have a line of each of the four GSM operators.

However, the minister said the telecoms regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), must come up with a policy to limit ownership of SIMs by individuals.

According to him, SIMs tied to a person should be a maximum of three.

“There should be a maximum number of SIM cards that can be tied to a single individual, possibly a maximum of three,” the minister stated in a statement released yesterday by his Technical Assistant (Information Technology), Dr. Femi Adeluyi.

In the new policy on SIM Card registration and usage sanctioned by the minister, all existing mobile subscribers must between now and end of November this year update their SIM registration to include their National Identification Number (NIN), which is being issued by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).

In the directive to NCC, the minister said the telecoms regulator must ensure that: “The NIN becomes a prerequisite for Nigerians registering new SIM cards (while for foreigners, their passports and visas should be used), while already registered SIM cards are to be updated with NIN before 1st December 2020.”

Other policy statements issued by the minister to the NCC include that it must: “Ensure that only fully accredited agents support the SIM card registration process without pre-registering SIM cards themselves, while the eventual registration should be done by the operators; Ensure that no unregistered SIMs are ever allowed on mobile networks; Ensure that subscribers can easily check the number of SIM cards registered to their name, along with the associated phone numbers and networks; Ensure that mobile network operators fortify their networks against cyber-attacks and ensure that they adhere to the provisions of the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR), and Ensure that SIM cards that have been used to perpetrate crimes are permanently deactivated.”

Pantami said he was ordering the revise of the SIM registration policy in line with the powers of the minister as stated in Section 25(1) of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003.

The section states that: “The Minister shall, in writing, from time to time notify the Commission or and express his views on the general policy direction of the Federal Government in respect of the communications sector.”

He also said the revision of the policy was based on the feedback he received from the security agencies following the successful revalidation of improperly registered SIM cards in September 2019 and the blocking of those that failed to revalidate their SIMs.