Nigerians Are Not Required To Submit IMEIs – NCC

Nigerians are not required to submit the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) of their phones from July contrary to earlier media reports.

This is according to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) which debunked earlier reports suggesting that the masses would have to submit their IMEIs to the Federal Government.

According to NCC spokesperson Ikechukwu Adinde via a statement issued on Friday, the commission is in the process of deploying a Device Management System.

“At no time did the commission issue a statement regarding the registration of IMEI by subscribers and it has no plans to do so,” he said. “The reports in question have emanated from a section of the Revised National Identity Policy for SIM Card Registration recently launched by President Muhammadu Buhari and which has been uploaded on the commission’s website.

“The DMS will essentially protect subscribers against phone theft and will identify and enable the elimination of fake devices from the networks.

“The system will capture IMEI automatically without any requirement for subscribers to submit same.”

In-case you didn’t know, IMEI is the International Mobile Equipment Identity number is used to uniquely identify a mobile phone. The 15-digit IMEI number is an electronic fingerprint transmitted every time a phone is used, which reveals the identity of the mobile handset. These numbers are independent of the phone number and are usually written underneath the battery or on the back of the handset. Mobile phone users can also check their 15 digit IMEI number by dialing *#06# on their mobile handset.