A new regulation by the Nigerian government through its Communications Commission (NCC) that seeks to empower the National Security Adviser, State Security Service and other security agencies in the country to monitor phone, internet and other electronic communication within Nigeria and beyond has been released, according to local ICT newspaper, Technology Times.
Citing broad reasons of safeguarding national security to crime fighting among others, the newspaper reports that failure by mobile operators and Internet service providers to comply with the provisions the regulation would attract a fine of N5 million and in extreme cases, outright revocation of their operating licence.
According to the Nigerian government, the regulation provides an effective means of checkmating security threats, crimes and theft with the move to empower the national security agencies to wiretap citizen’s communications, through interception of telephone conversations, among others.
The country which continues to face security challenges is Africa’s biggest telecoms market with over 100 million mobile subscribers as at October 2012 and boasts the largest number of Internet users in Africa with about 50 million users.
Source: Techloy
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