The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says over 60 million subscribers’ biometric and personal registration information submitted to telecom operators have been screened and verified.
The figure is out of a total 95.7 million subscriber registrations the telecom sector regulatory authority said were invalid in the country.
As at last January, data obtained from the NCC website showed the country has about 249.2 million connected mobile telephone subscribers from the five leading operators.
Out of the number, only about 173.6 million subscriber lines are active.
The existing telecom operators include 9mobile (formerly Etisalat), Globacom, MTN, Airtel, Ntel, Multilinks, Visafone, and Smile.
The Commission said the process of ‘scrubbing’ registration data submitted by operators is ongoing.
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“Scrubbing” in the telecom industry is the screening process of verifying biometric and personal information submitted by all operators in respect of each of their subscribers.
“So far, over 60 million subscriber records have been “scrubbed” successfully,” the commission said.
The commission clarified that although the 95.7million subscribers data said to be invalid were disclosed at a sensitization workshop recently, it was to illustrate the quality of initial data submissions in the country.
Subsequent process enhancements by the NCC and operators, it said, have resulted in better quality submissions in the system.
The NCC said the outcome of its initial scrubbing exercise was to underscore the need for subscriber registration agents and operators to ensure strict adherence to the Subscriber Registration Regulations of 2011 as well as the technical specifications for subscriber registration.
“The process is ongoing, and is constantly being reviewed for higher efficiency,” it said.
The commission emphasised the need for all subscribers to ensure their biometric data and other personal information are properly captured to avoid unnecessary complications that may affect their banking, educational, health, travel and other pursuits which rely on proof of personal identity.
“We also wish to assure all stakeholders that the commission will continue to aggressively pursue the national interest objectives of delivering an accurate database of telephone subscribers in Nigeria.
“We expect all players in the subscriber registration value chain to support the national security objectives of the exercise as NCC will continue to show zero tolerance for deviations from the process,” the commission said.
Samson Oyedeyi
