The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, has disclosed that it will start collecting the International Mobile Equipment Identity, IMEI, of Nigerians’ phones from July.
This move of the commission is to have the IMEI numbers, National Identity Numbers, NIN, and the mobile numbers of every Nigeria’s citizens.
This was disclosed by the regulatory body in the NCC’s Revised National Identity Policy for SIM Card Registration.
According to The Punch, this is following the commission’s move to begin the pursuit of the Device Management System – a Centralised Equipment Identity Register, fully backed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
One of the DMS’s policies disclosed by NCC reads:
“Accordingly, His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, has directed that the Device Management System should be implemented within three months.”
The NCC reiterated the aim of its commission to engaged in this movement to reduce in extent, the counterfeit mobile phone market, drastically reduce or bring an end to mobile phone theft, ensure National Security, protect consumer interest, and generate more revenue for the government.
Stressing further, the commission said it is also working to ensure the reduction in the rate of kidnapping, mitigate the use of stolen phones for crime, and easily block or trace the stolen mobile phones and other smart devices.
It added that one of the means to succeed in achieving the above-listed goals is through the deployment of a Device Management System.
The commission disclosed that the implementation of a Centralised Equipment Identity Register will be used as a storage for keeping records of all registered mobile phones’ IMEI numbers and owners of such devices.
It also added that all the IMEIs that have been reported as either stolen or illegal will be shared through the DMS to all the operators and service providers and this will ease the blocking and tracing of such smart devices.
The International Mobile Equipment Identity, IMEI, is a 15-digit unique number assigned to each phone right from the production time. With the IMEI number, a phone can be tracked and located irrespective of the cellular number in it.
Sahara Reporters gathered from an expert that IMEI helps the Police to track stolen phones, who pleaded anonymity.
In his word, he said the IMEI allows them to track the phone’s information, people the phone calls each day and the house address of the people that call on the phone.
He said he can not disclose details of how the IMEI of a phone works because it is sensitive information and leaking the secret helps the people stealing the phone bypass the information.
He added that some people have already tried to change the IMEI of stolen phones, but getting the original back is under their control.
This new development will give the NCC access to every Nigerians’ phone IMEI numbers, NIN, as well as, their mobile numbers.
