By Kingsley Samuel
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) are working to extend phone number fraud detection systems to more sectors, as part of efforts to protect customers’ accounts and digital services.
The initiative will use the NCC’s Telecommunications Identity Risk Management System (TIRMS) to help organisations identify recycled phone numbers and numbers flagged for fraud.
Speaking at the 95th Telecom Consumer Parliament in Lagos, the Executive Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NCC, Dr Aminu Maida, said the Commission planned to expand the system’s use beyond telecommunications and financial services.
“Building on our collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria, we intend to extend its use across sectors where phone numbers are used to identify customers and carry out transactions,” Maida said.
He said TIRMS could help organisations recognise recycled and fraud-flagged numbers, reducing the risk of unauthorised access to people’s accounts and services.
“By helping organisations recognise recycled numbers and numbers flagged for fraud, TIRMS can reduce the risk of someone gaining access to another person’s accounts or services,” he said.
Maida said phone numbers had become an important part of people’s digital identities, as consumers used them to access financial services, manage pensions and shop online.
The collaboration between the NCC and CBN is focused on digital payments, fraud prevention and consumer protection, including systems to identify phone numbers that may put bank customers’ accounts at risk.
At the forum, the Executive Director of the Consumer Advocacy and Empowerment Foundation, Prof. Chiso Ndukwe-Okafor, urged the NCC to publish telecoms quality-of-service data at street and community levels.
She said localised data would help expose persistent network problems and enable subscribers to make informed choices. Ndukwe-Okafor also raised concern that 36 per cent of telecoms subscriptions were still on 2G networks.
She cautioned operators against relying only on smartphone applications for customer support, saying this could exclude consumers using older devices or networks.
Ndukwe-Okafor cited the case of an 87-year-old subscriber whose calls reportedly dropped when he moved from one part of his bedroom to another. She said the problem had remained unresolved for two years.
The consumer advocate called for greater transparency in tariffs, data usage, automatic renewals and deductions. She also urged operators to set clear timelines for reversing failed airtime and data transactions.
“Consumers should not be tossed around from their network operators to the NCC and then to other consumer protection agencies just to resolve a complaint,” she said.
She urged operators to give timely outage notices, provide complaint channels accessible to persons with disabilities and people without smartphones, and ensure that cases marked as resolved lead to actual remedies.
The NCC’s Executive Commissioner for Stakeholder Management, Ms Rimini Makama, called on operators and other stakeholders to make practical commitments to service quality, billing transparency and consumer protection.
She said reliable telecoms services were essential to everyday activities in Nigeria’s growing digital economy, from small businesses awaiting payment confirmations to students attending online classes and families staying connected.
