The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is planning on imposing a N200,000 fine for telecommunications companies that do not verify and validate biometric, National Identity Number (NIN) and other personal information of subscribers.
This was disclosed by the NCC on its website, in a proposed draft regulation on registration of telephone subscribers 2021.
Nigerians were directed by the Federal Government to enrol for NIN and link their unique number to their phone lines.
The deadline for the exercise since the directive was announced by the FG in 2020, has been extended not less than six times
The initial deadline announced by the Federal Government5 was January 19, 2021, it was however shifted to February 9, April 6, May 6, June 30, July 26 and subsequentlyOctober 31.
Section 19 of the draft document, NCC said mobile communications services providers must ensure that NINs are verified and validated before activation.
It stated that networks that violate the requirement will be fined the sum N200,000.
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A similar penalty has been proposed for telcos that fail to register subscribers with the central database as well as those who activate subscriptions without appropriate registration of such subscribers.
“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,” the draft reads.
“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.”
