Many occasions occurred within the telecommunication sector of Nigeria this yr however the greatest of all continues to be the federal authorities’s directive to all telecommunications operators to get the Nationwide Id Numbers (NINs) of their clients linked to their SIM registration.
This got here in mid-December and the federal government initially handed the operators two weeks to do it. Although the deadline has been prolonged to mid-January (for these with NINs) and early February (for these with out NIN), analysts imagine as a lot as one hundred sixty million Nigerians could also be blocked due to overwhelming nature of the duty.
Nigeria’s teledensity rose by 2.2 per cent from 104.four per cent to 106.6 per cent in October, rising the variety of telecom subscribers to 203.5m, mentioned the Nigerian Communications Fee (NCC).
Nonetheless, the Nationwide Id Administration Fee (NIMC) was solely capable of register paltry 42m Nigerians in 10 years the enrolment train began.
173 brokers for ID registration – FG
However the federal authorities stated it believed the duty can be achieved because it had licensed 173 centres and 30 state authorities establishments to conduct the enrolment of the Nationwide Id Quantity (NIN) throughout Nigeria.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economic system, Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami), accepted this not too long ago, NIMC mentioned on its web site.
Controversial 50% slash in knowledge value
Telecom subscribers in December challenged the declare by the federal authorities that the worth of knowledge had been diminished by greater than 50 per cent.
The federal authorities introduced in mid-December that it adopted a directive by the Nigerian Communications Fee (NCC) to the telecom operators.
Nevertheless, telecom subscribers countered this saying FG’s declare of fifty% information price discount was not true as they nonetheless purchase 1 Gigabyte (Gb) of information at N1000.
Read also: FG demands strategic plan for protection of telecom infrastructure
President of Nationwide Telecommunications Subscribers of Nigeria (NATCOMS), Deolu Ogunbanjo stated the slash in knowledge value wasn’t true, noting that the telecom operators solely did the technical discount by way of promo.
How hackers stole web sites
The federal authorities introduced in October that it absolutely recovered a few of its web sites breached by a hacker group, Nameless.
Nameless introduced on its Twitter deal with in October that it hacked into web sites of some Nigerian companies in solidarity with #EndSARS protest.
The Financial and Monetary Crimes Fee (EFCC), the Safety and Change Fee (SEC), and another businesses in addition to some non-public corporations have reportedly had their web sites hacked into by the hackers.
Aside from EFCC which introduced a breach to its web site, different businesses and corporations stored mute about it.
However talking at a 1st Annual Digital Nigeria Day in Abuja, Dr. Pantami admitted that some companies really had their web sites compromised. He, nevertheless, added that every one the compromised web sites had been recovered totally from the hacker’s management.
NIPOST, FIRS stamp responsibility controversy
There was additionally a cyber-combat between the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) and the Federal Inland Income Service (FIRS) over who was entitled to gather the N50 stamp obligation cost.
NIPOST insisted that it has the fitting to be accountable for postage stamp and stamp authentication on transactions.
Pantami mentioned he would proceed to struggle to revert to the choice that gave the gathering of stamp responsibility to Federal Inland Income Service (FIRS).
