Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has proposed a fine of N200,000 for telecommunications companies that fail to verify the National Identity Number (NIN) of subscribers.
Gatekeepers News reports that the NCC has proposed that telecommunications companies will pay a fine of N200,000 for each line they fail to verify and validate biometric, National Identity Number (NIN), and other personal information.
The NCC disclosed this in a proposed draft regulation on registration of telephone subscribers 2021 published on its website.
In 2020, the Federal Government of Nigeria asked its citizens to enrol for NIN and link their unique numbers to the phone lines.
Since the announcement, an extension of the deadline for NIN registration and Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) integration exercise has taken place at least six times.
The initial deadline was January 19, but it was moved to February 9, April 6, May 6, June 30, July 26, and now October 31.
According to Section 19 of the draft document, mobile communications services providers must ensure that NINs are verified and validated before activation.
NCC noted that a penalty of N200,000 awaits those who breach the requirement.
A similar fine has been proposed for telcos that fail to register subscribers with the central database and also those who activate subscriptions without appropriate registration of such subscribers.
The drafts read, “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.
“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 operators over the non-compliance with the SIM deactivation directive.
According to the regulator, Globacom was N7.4 million, Etisalat (now 9mobile) N7 million, Airtel N3.8 million, and MTN N102.2 million.
Afterwards, MTN got a fine of N1.04 trillion for not deactivating 5.1 million unregistered lines. The fine was finally reduced to N330 billion with a condition that MTN will list on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), a condition which is yet to be met by the telco.
MTN initially paid N275 billion and balanced the balance of N55 billion in May 2019.
