Nigerian telecommunications operators have registered 11 million SIM cards in the country, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) announced. It is part of the country's move to register all users in the county. The government hopes the efforts will enhance security of lives and property ordered by telecom operators to register all users of their SIM cards. Experts however argue that the number of registered SIM cards remains quite low from the number of connected lines in the country. According to statistics, the number of lines in Nigeria is estimated at 110 million with 80 million active subscribers and a teledensity of 53 percent. Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Eugene Juwah said that the commission would in the next few months, sign a deal with KPMG to begin the full registration of all subscribers after having secured the National Assembly's 2010 budget. Juwah did rule out any compensation for network operators who had spent their resource registering the 11 million subscribers thus far, saying that “compensation was not part of the agreement they reached with the NCC and Federal government.” BM
