NCC plans to criminalise use of mobile phones for fraud

Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) plans to criminalise the use of mobile phone for fraud. Aminu Maida, Its Chief Executive, said this at a media briefing in Lagos. He said that there should be consequences for using mobile lines for fraud, adding that a law would soon be enacted to ensure that fraudsters using mobile lines for fraud face consequences. The NCC boss said the absence of such a law had made many people to continue to perpetrate nefarious acts with phones. “People are using mobile numbers for a lot of frauds today and this is because there is no consequence. We are coming up with a regulation that will make sure there is a consequence for using your mobile for fraud.”

He particularly expressed concerns over people using other people’s lines to commit fraud. Maida advised banks to continuously revalidate the ownership of numbers attached to bank accounts as telecom operators are bound to recycle and resell mobile lines not used for a certain period. “We want to protect the integrity of our mobile numbers. When we don’t use it for a while, it has to be recycled and this exposes people to fraud. We want to create more awareness about this so that people can understand that there is a window during which if they do not use their line, it can be allocated to another person. He said that the NCC would enforce its regulatory to ensure that telecom licensees comply with their obligations and meet agreements. He said licensees must be ready to comply with the standards of the commission as well as ensure they keep to their part of any agreements made in any deal.

“As a regulator, as empowered by the NCA Acts and regulations, we have the powers to hold our licensees to their obligations. So, over the past couple of years, I think the industry has been in what I would say development phase, but it’s time we push ourselves into a maturity phase whereby we will be driving compliance. Compliance would be something you’re going to be seeing that we drive very strongly. Whenever our licensees have an obligation to meet, we will be expecting them to meet those obligations. If they have agreements between themselves, we’ll be expecting them to meet those agreements,” he said.