FEC approves ₦1.8bn to tackle criminal activities in telecoms sector

<h4><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; 14pt&semi;">The sum of N1&period;8 billion has been approved by the Federal Executive Council &lpar;FEC&rpar; for the deployment of regulatory systems in the Nigerian Telecommunications industry to tackle criminal activities&period;<&sol;span><&sol;h4>&NewLine;<div id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;14952" style&equals;"width&colon; 1290px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-14952" class&equals;"wp-image-14952 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;thedailypage&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;12&sol;Pantami-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><p id&equals;"caption-attachment-14952" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">FEC approves ₦1&period;8bn to tackle criminal activities in telecoms sector<&sol;p><&sol;div>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; 14pt&semi;">Isa Ali Pantami&comma; the Nigerian Minister of Communications and Digital Economy made this known in a press briefing with State House correspondents after a cabinet meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday in Abuja<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; 14pt&semi;">The minister noted that &&num;8220&semi;the first memo that was approved by FEC is for the deployment of regulatory systems in the telecommunications industry to be implemented by the NCC&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; 14pt&semi;">He further said &&num;8220&semi;the system has two components&semi; number one is the deployment of a regulatory system to monitor&comma; detect and block SIM box traffic&period; It is going to be implemented at the cost of N804&period;12 million by the NCC&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; 14pt&semi;">&&num;8220&semi;Using these systems&comma; the NCC will be able to immediately address such criminal tendencies on behalf of the Nigerian government&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Pantami said&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; 14pt&semi;">The second component in the same memo&comma; he said&comma; is the deployment of a regulatory system to monitor&comma; detect&comma; block&comma; and call masking traffic at the cost of N1&period;05 billion&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; 14pt&semi;">This &lpar;second component &rpar;will enhance revenue generation by our government because the use of any international number will attract higher tax but if it appears as a local number&comma; the government would be short-changed&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; 14pt&semi;">The minister also noted that the president has approved the deployment of the systems to enhance the security of all citizens&comma; especially mobile phone users&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; 14pt&semi;">He continued that the distribution of 6&comma;000 e-pad mobile devices by the NCC to tertiary institutions across the country has been approved by President Buhari&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; 14pt&semi;">He said in the quote &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;In the northern parts of the country&comma; 2400 of such devices will be distributed&semi; the same number for the southern parts&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; 14pt&semi;">A special allocation will be made for Abuja and Lagos where both of them will share the remaining 120 units of devices&period;”<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;