House of Representatives has passed for second reading of a bill for an act to make mandatory the use of the National Identity Number (NIN) in the registration SIM cards by all mobile telecommunication network operators with the Identity Management Commission.
Leading the debate on general principles of the Bill, the sponsor, Mr Sergius Ogun, noted that though the Executive had already started the process of getting all users of mobiles phones to link their SIM cards to their NIN, the bill was necessary to give legislative backing to the measure taken by the Executive.
The lawmaker stated that the bill was the legislative contribution to the ongoing fight against the increasing cases of criminality in the country orchestrated by bandits, terrorists, internet fraudsters and armed robbers, who take advantage of easy access to telecom networks.
Mr Ogun added that amending the NIMC Act, to include registration of SIM cards with every subscriber’s NIN, would make it easy to uncover the identity behind various criminal activities being carried out in the society.
