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| Eugene Ikemefuna Juwah, the Executive Vice Chairman, NCC |
The
Nigerian Communications Commission on Wednesday announced the
imposition of N53.8m fines on four mobile telecommunication operators
for contravening the rules on registration of Subscriber Identification
Module cards in the country.
A statement issued in Abuja by Head of
Media and Public Relations, NCC, Mr. Reuben Muoka, said 269
pre-registered SIM cards were either purchased or reported to it and
confirmed by the operators.
Muoka said, “In furtherance of the
ongoing enforcement of the provisions of the Telephone Subscribers
Registration Regulations, 2011, the NCC has imposed fines on four mobile
services operators for contravening the provisions on pre-registration
of SIM cards in Nigeria.
“The fines imposed are based on the
number of fully activated new SIM cards that were either reported to the
commission or purchased in compliance with monitoring and enforcement
exercises conducted by the commission, and validated by the offending
network.
“Each of such pre-registered SIMs found
attracted a penalty of N200,000. Accordingly, Airtel Nigeria Networks
Limited is liable to payment of a fine in the sum of N8.6m for the
availability of 43 pre-registered SIM cards during the exercise.
“Emerging Markets Telecommunications
Service Limited, EMTS, is liable to pay a fine in the sum N5m for
contravening on 25 pre-registered SIM cards, while Globacom Limited is
liable to a fine in the sum of N11m on 55 pre-registered SIM cards.
“MTN Nigeria Communications Limited, on
the other hand, is liable to pay the sum of N29.2m for contravening on
146 pre-registered SIM cards.”
Muoka said the service providers were
given up to seven days to pay the fines, failure of which N500,000 would
be charged for any additional day that the contravention persisted.
According to him, the commission in the
notice of sanction to the service providers signed by the Director,
Legal and Regulatory Services, Ms. Josephine Amuwa, and Director,
Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement, Mr. Ubale Maska, said the fines
were in exercise of its discretionary powers.
He said this followed prior warnings in
April 2012 that network service providers would be liable for breaches
by their registration centres carrying out pre-registration of new SIM
cards for sales, since it was the providers that activated the new SIM
cards.
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