Nigeria Orders Mobile Users To Link Phones To National ID Numbers

Nigeria's telecommunications regulator ordered mobile-phone users to link their devices to their national identity numbers, raising the prospect of millions of lines being blocked. From a report: Subscribers have until Dec. 31 to comply with the requirement, the Nigerian Communications Commission said in a statement Tuesday on its website. Failure to do so will result in their phone lines being cut off in January, it said. Africa's largest economy had about 196 million active phone lines as of June 2020, NCC data shows. At the same time, only 41.5 million Nigerians had the required identity numbers, according to information on the website of the National Identity Management Commission, which is in charge of registrations. MTN Group's local unit is the biggest wireless operator in the West African country. Airtel Africa, which listed in Lagos and London last year, vies with local operator Globacom to be the country's second-biggest carrier.

Re:A hive of scum and villany

[cayenne8]

Hey...watch what's going on in these parts of the world.

Surely but slowly, they'll try to pul that shit here in the US.

Re: A hive of scum and villany

[drinkypoo]

It is already done here for people with contracts, getting one of those requires providing your SSN. Prepay services demand an email and phone number...

Re:

[tepples]

If it's your first phone, presumably you use your parents' number.

Re:

[freeze128]

How many Nigerians get phone calls from the IRS in the U.S., or calls from Windows Support saying that they have detected a virus on their computers?

Re:

[ArchieBunker]

That fuckhead Mitch McConnell finally do his job and vote on something?

Re:

[schwit1]

Yer right, it's McConnell's fault that Nancy Pelosi’s stimulus bill is an unhelpful spending spree [bostonherald.com].

Re: $600 government checks inbound!

[NagrothAgain]

Nothing has been put up for a Vote in either the House or Senate, so no. And stimulus payments are still a topic of discussion, it sounds like they're talking about $600 a person but no word on who might qualify or how much per crotchfruit for parents.

Not news!

[aglider]

You cannot have a phone number without a valid I'd in Italy since ... Ever.

Re:

[kot-begemot-uk]

You cannot have a phone number without a valid I'd in Italy since ... Ever.

This is a Eu mandate after the Madrid bombings. The level of enforcement, however differs from country to country and the enforcement regarding tourists and pre-paid SIMs is pretty lax.

So the original reason for this, namely using the phone as a remote trigger device has not been mitigated. At the same time, the governments have gotten detailed information on citizen movements under the pretence that they are dealing with the terrorist threat.

It will be the same in Nigeria. While the official reason for

Re:

[DigitAl56K]

Why would you even need a trigger over a network if you're a bad guy? If you have a smartphone you already have a device with a clock and GPS. Very little imagination required.

Re:

[Entrope]

Remotely donated bombs are usually blown up based on passing traffic, not based on the device itself arriving somewhere.

Re:

[kot-begemot-uk]

1. In the days of Madrid bombings there were no GPS in a phone. You are looking at Nokia 3xxx series here.

2. The detonators in Madrid were soldered to the vibrator terminals. So actually it was possible to blow it up by anything. While the conclusion of the investigation is that an alarm was set, it could have been an SMS to the same effect.

3. In the days when you can purchase all the parts to build a similar device off the Amazon for 30£ the original intention of the SIM registration legislation is

Re:Not news!

[MrL0G1C]

In the UK unless I'm mistaken, sims are handed out like candy, I have a bunch of spares that the phone company wanted me to give away and you can buy sims from stores for cash easily. I'm not aware of any kind of ID requirement and we don't strictly speaking have a national ID anyway. You can't demand people show a passport or driving license because not everyone has those.

Re:

[tepples]

You can't demand people show a passport or driving license because not everyone has those.

How do Brits get a bank account with which to make online purchases without one of those?

Re:

[MrL0G1C]

Yeah, they threatened to close my bank account if I didn't show ID I didn't have, then they capitulated. IDK what happened to everyone else. I opened my account with a CIS card.

Everyone starts off without a driving license or passport, you can't make them 100% necessary, that wouldn't make sense. If you can get a passport then surely the ID you use to get the passport should be valid to get other things too.

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[Kamineko]

Birth certificate.

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[sg_oneill]

This is a Eu mandate after the Madrid bombings. The level of enforcement, however differs from country to country and the enforcement regarding tourists and pre-paid SIMs is pretty lax.

This does put Nigerias actions in perspective. Nigeria are having a long running war against Boko Haram, a group that rates up there with ISIS l, in terms of sheer fuckery (Boko Harams pet tactic is mass child murder), and in a country like Nigera which has a real chance to beat the african post-colonial poverty curse and bec

Nope!

[aglider]

Nope. Since the beginning of the mobile phones era in Italy you have to give your identity details to whoever is your operator. Let's say the '80s.

And before that, the same went for landline numbers.

Re:

[fph il quozientatore]

Terrorism: the go-to excuse to restrict individual freedom and anonymity since 2001.

Re:

[invictusvoyd]

There is a difference between "valid ID" and national ID.

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[fermion]

It is pretty typical. In France I could get a temporary burner sim within ID, but to get to keep it or get a SIM at orange I needed id. Same thing with other operators. In the US I they certainly have my phone linked to me.

The confusion may be that in the US our SSN is legally protected from such uses, so we mostly use our DL. However in other countries the national number is used to track citizens across absolutely everything.

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[bn-7bc]

Well the US SSN is not suited for ID any way, it was never designed for that, it has no way to verifi if it’s valid without actually checking a db

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[fermion]

It was limited by law not be a national id. In other countries, even developing countries, they may not clean water but the bigger shops have a link to the national database to validate your number.

Useless

[nospam007]

Criminals will just use a foreign SIMcard, unless they plan to give up the tourist business forever.

Re: Useless

[NagrothAgain]

Or tourists will have to register their foreign SIM using their passport ID.

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[wakeboarder]

Yeah, but then you have much smaller area to search.

Re:

[arglebargle_xiv]

Actually the Nigerian mandate was issued by deposed Prince Abioye Musa, you can avoid being cut off by sending him 50,000 naira via Western Union.

How long before mandatory barcode tattoo?

[Fly Swatter]

Seriously, we are headed there.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

You fucking nutters have been going off about barcode tattoos for decades. DECADES! Still hasn't happened.

Re:

[lessSockMorePuppet]

Why barcode when DNA is a thing?

And just like that...

[DrXym]

... phone and identity theft became so much more lucrative to criminals.

Citizens demand open government bank accounts

[AcidFnTonic]

Citizens have just decided that they'd require open government bank accounts.

No more money deposited to any government worker or politician who hasn't provided the login details to their national Bank account.

This is clearly to fight corruption and nothing else will be done with the data. So go ahead and open up your bank accounts government workers... For freedom, and totally not because a bunch of armed goons requested it.

Re: Citizens demand open government bank accounts

[OrangeTide]

isn't it always armed goons shouting freedom in your face? it's almost comical how cliche it has become.