House of Reps urges NCC to extend SIM wait period

By Ejire Folaklunmi

The House of Representatives has called on the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to significantly extend the waiting period for reassigning inactive phone numbers, proposing a new 18-month (one year and six months) dormancy threshold to safeguard Nigerians from identity theft and fraud.

The resolution, passed during Tuesday’s plenary, follows a motion moved by Hon. Billy Osawaru, representing Orhionmwon/Uhunmwode Federal Constituency of Edo State.

The lawmakers argued that the current six-month deactivation window is insufficient in an era where phone numbers are deeply integrated into personal banking and social media.

By extending the period to 18 months, the House aims to harmonize telecommunications practices with the Data Protection Act, 2023, ensuring that former subscribers are not unfairly exposed to criminal allegations or financial loss when their “recycled” numbers are picked up by new users.

The House’s intervention highlights a critical mechanical flaw in the Telecom Identity Risk Management Policy.

In the current digital ecosystem, a phone number is no longer just a communication tool; it is a Primary Key for financial and digital identity.

When a SIM card is reassigned after only 180 days of dormancy, the new owner often inherits access to the previous owner’s Bank Verification Number (BVN) links, WhatsApp history, and one-time passwords (OTPs).

This “Identity Overlap” creates a mechanical vulnerability that fraudsters exploit to drain bank accounts or impersonate individuals.

Hon. Osawaru’s proposal to mandate Public Announcements in national newspapers and reports to the police for numbers due for reallocation adds a layer of “Bureaucratic Transparency” currently missing from the NCC guidelines.

By requiring network providers to list inactive numbers once or twice annually, the policy creates a “Verified Audit Trail.”

This would make it mechanically simpler for law enforcement to distinguish between a fraudulent transaction made by a new subscriber and the legitimate history of the former owner.

For the NCC, the challenge will be balancing the scarcity of numbering resources, as prefixes are finite, against the urgent need to protect the digital integrity of millions of Nigerian subscribers.