Yemisi Izuora
The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC has said that Nigerians are not required to submit the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) of their phones to it from July, 2021.
The reaction is to correct some media publications to the effect that the Commission will require such subscribers to submit the IMEI to the Commission from July.
At no time did the Commission issue a Statement regarding the registration of IMEI by subscribers and it has no plans to do so, but the reports in question have emanated from a section of the Revised National Identity Policy for SIM Card Registration recently launched by President Muhammadu Buhari and which has been uploaded on the Commission’s website.
The Commission is in the process of deploying a Device Management System DMS, which will essentially protect subscribers against phone theft and will identify and enable the elimination of fake devices from the networks.
The system will also capture IMEI automatically without any requirement for subscribers to submit same.
The NCC therefore advised the public to disregard the said publications, which have created the erroneous impression that telephone subscribers will be required to register their IMEI with their networks.