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Purchasing telecommunications equipment to detect and thwart SIM card fraud was approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday.
The acceptance of the new regulatory framework will aid the country's efforts to deal with the country's insecurity issues.
State House media were briefed by Isa Pantami, Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, at the end of President Muhammadu Buhari's virtual Council meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
System deployment will help to monitor, detect, and block SIM cards to combat the "voice traffic termination fraught," he said.
This is to present two memos that have been authorized by the Federal Executive Council, he said. The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, is responsible for implementing these memos.
"The Federal Executive Council has authorized the first document for the implementation by NCC of regulatory systems in the telecoms industry.
"There are two parts to these regulatory systems." As the first step, regulators will monitor and prohibit communications coming from SIM boxes. This is the first, and it will cost NCC N804,122,897.50 to execute.
For the fight against "voice traffic termination fraught," we have deployed a system that monitors, detects, and blocks SIM cards. In addition to numerous other benefits, the two systems will help our country in two significant ways.
"First and foremost, it will aid the country in dealing with security issues." On sometimes, you may receive a call from a number that appears to be a local one on your smartphone but is actually an international one. That's why they decided to set up the phone's international number as a local one.
It's impossible to identify the person even if you report that." You'll get a call from an unknown or private number, and the network will display it to you. That's why you need to look into the identity of the caller.
It's also possible to clone numbers in this area. " As long as you don't know it, someone will clone your number and make a call with his phone, but with your number on the other end. People who plan on committing a crime often use one of these methods. People who wish to avoid paying taxes and other government benefits frequently support any procedure that makes an overseas phone call appear to be a local one.
As a result, the Nigerian Communications Commission, acting on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria, will be alerted instantly to any attempt to hide, obscure, or otherwise alter the identity of a phone number or to disguise an international call as a local one.
As stated in Nigeria's constitution, Section 14, sub-section 2, Article B, "the security of our country is of the utmost importance," and President Goodluck Jonathan has ordered the deployment of this system.
According to him, "We can go to any extent to ensure that we cleanse all other sectors so that our security would be greatly increased."
A regulatory framework to monitor, detect, block, and call masking activity in the telecoms business is also outlined in the same memo," the minister stated.
One is to block SIM boxes, bands, or aggregators, and the other is to block call masking. Criminals and those suspected of being criminals are involved in all of them. The second one will cost N1, 049,790,713.58 to implement.
It will also help our government raise revenue, as I previously stated, because international numbers typically pay more in taxes to the government. If it appears as a local number, the government will be considerably underpaid.
If our security institutions can use these two systems to their advantage, I believe it will help them to keep our country safe." The second benefit is that it will assist the Ministry of Finance and its parastatals in generating more money for Nigeria's federal government. An overview of the first memo follows.
The second memo, on the other hand, represents yet another special intervention by the Buhari administration. In the wake of COVID-19, many of us were forced to go online and conduct most of our business or government activities online, to the point where most of our activities are now conducted online.
"As part of the present administration's intervention, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has been ordered to follow ADAPTI policy." For federal and state colleges and universities, ADAPTI stands for Advanced Digital Awareness Program for Tertiary Institutions
In this phase of President Muhammadu Buhari's intervention, the Nigerian Communications Commission today approved the distribution of 6000 e-pact mobile devices to higher education institutions across the country following a lengthy deliberation.
"In the first phase, 2,400 will be distributed in the northern half of the country. A total of 2,400 will be given out in the South. For Lagos and Abuja, we've made particular provisions. Both of them will receive $1,200 for their efforts. For this reason, there are three places. As a result, the total number of facilities is 6000.
Because of this, our institutions, particularly those in the tertiary education sector will be able to deliver lectures online, and we hope that this will encourage our institutions to do so as well." Assignments can be submitted online by students. Because it extends beyond a single academic institution, hospitals are able to handle some requests over the internet. At the federal or state level, medical institutions will reap the benefits. And this is just a fraction of the year in 2021.
Until 2021, it has been a part of the budget. However, putting the plan into action proved challenging. And this is part of President Muhammadu Buhari's efforts to make education, learning, and other activities more accessible to our people. The two memos are here.