Nigerian Telecommunications Commission has announced that starting from July, Nigerians will have to submit the International Mobile Equipment Identity of their phone to the NCC.
This statement was made by the NCC in its newly revised national identity Policy for SIM card registration.
The NCC further stated that this policy backed and approved by the President of Nigeria was implemented in order to reduce crime rates in the country via the implementation of Device Management System (DMS) in the country.
The DMS is a centralized equipment Identity register that will be used to keep records of every registered mobile phone and track owners of the devices.
The IMEI of a phone is the phone’s fingerprint and it has a 15-digit number which is usually unique to an individual’s phone.
With the introduction of the IMEI number, the NCC would be able to track every of the phone’s information; caller’s IDs, house address and phone calls.
When the implementation commences, the NCC will have the IMEI numbers, NIN, and the phone number of every citizen in the country.