It is shocking, indeed, disturbing, that in 2025, some Nigerians still think it is acceptable to send their drivers, housekeepers, or security guards to register SIM cards on their behalf. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is right to sound the alarm: this practice is not only careless, it is criminal. And if we are serious about curbing cybercrime, kidnapping networks, and financial fraud, then we must stop treating SIM registration as a menial errand to be delegated.
Dr. Aminu Maida, the NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman, was blunt: if you send someone else to register a SIM card because you want to conceal your identity, you are breaking the law. More importantly, you are inviting danger into your own home. When that SIM number is later traced to ransom demands, phishing scams, or extortion, it is your name that will surface in the police file- not your driver’s, not your housekeeper’s.
This casual outsourcing of digital identity reveals a troubling cultural flaw. Too often, Nigerians still treat regulatory obligations as inconveniences rather than safeguards. Just as some pay others to sit exams, queue at government offices, or even impersonate them in official functions, SIM registration has been reduced to a task to be “sent out.” This attitude corrodes accountability and undermines national security.
The truth is stark: in today’s Nigeria, a SIM card is not a mere chip of plastic. It is a digital passport into the economy and security matrix. With one SIM, you can transfer millions, access bank accounts, manipulate data, and, tragically, coordinate crimes. To delegate that registration to a domestic worker is to hand over the keys of your digital life, and worse, to stain their identity with liabilities they neither understand nor control.
The NCC has clarified that there are no unregistered SIMs left in the networks. This is progress. But progress is meaningless if loopholes are left for bad actors to exploit. Every fraudulent registration, every misused identity, weakens the very foundation on which law enforcement depends to track criminals. Insecurity thrives when citizens cut corners.
Some may argue that Nigerians resort to using proxies because telecom processes are slow, bureaucratic, or frustrating. That excuse does not hold. However flawed the system may be, the personal responsibility of owning and verifying your identity cannot be shifted to another. Security is not a burden to be shrugged off onto domestic staff. It is a civic duty.
The NCC must go beyond issuing warnings. It must prosecute high-profile cases of proxy SIM registration to send a clear message. Telecom operators, too, must tighten their know-your-customer (KYC) protocols, ensuring that facial recognition, biometrics, and identity verification cannot be outsourced with a mere letter or cash tip. Civil society and the media must amplify this campaign until Nigerians grasp that a SIM card is as sensitive as a passport, a driver’s licence, or a voter’s card.
This is not just about compliance. It is about protecting households from ruin. Imagine your SIM being linked to a kidnapping case because your “houseboy” registered it. Imagine police raids, reputational damage, and frozen accounts—all because you could not spare thirty minutes to register in person. That is not just negligence. It is recklessness. We must therefore echo the NCC’s warning: register your own SIM, by yourself, with your own identity. SIM registration is not a chore. It is an act of national responsibility. Let us treat it as such.
