NCC Warns Against Relying on Truecaller for Accurate Phone Number Identification
- Aminu Maida, the executive vice-president of the NCC, warned that Truecaller’s results are not always reliable and are not connected to the nation's SIM registration database
- He highlighted that phone numbers are recycled, and dormant lines may be reassigned, which can lead to inaccuracies in Truecaller’s data.
- Maida also stressed that while all SIM cards are registered, they may not always be used by the original registrants, urging public awareness and responsible SIM registration practices
Legit.ng journalist Zainab Iwayemi has 5-year-experience covering the Economy, Technology, and Capital Market.
The Nigerian Communications Commission's (NCC) executive vice-president (EVC), Aminu Maida, warns that the Truecaller results are not always reliable and states that the platform is not connected to the nation's subscriber identity module (SIM) registration database.
Source: Getty Images
Maida stated at a news conference on Monday that Truecaller is not an official identity verification platform.
“Every time you install Truecaller, what happens is that they upload your entire address book,” he said.
“So, if you have put a number there and you have used derogatory language, for example, if somebody uses derogatory language, Truecaller will actually record whatever you have put against that name. Of course, it will also compare it against if it has seen that number from the upload of other users. So whatever we see in Truecaller is not necessarily a reflection of the facts. In most cases, it is, but it is not an authoritative source.”
According to Maida, the International Telecoms Union (ITU), a United Nations (UN) organization in charge of telecom regulation and standardization, assigns phone numbers as a restricted national resource. Due to limited availability, he said, phone numbers are recycled, and after a year, dormant lines may be considered for reassignment.
The EVC did point out that some numbers, especially those with appealing sequences or unique allocations, are regarded as premium and sought after.
“If they’re not in use, they get recycled. If Truecaller has linked it to someone’s name, the link could still be there, but it has been assigned to someone else,” he said.
According to Maida, the NCC is collaborating with other sector regulators to develop a platform that will allow other sector authorities to access the data anytime the numbers are recycled.
NCC working with regulators
According to the EVC, registered SIMs can be used by people other than the registrants, even though unregistered SIM cards are not in use.
“I can authoritatively say that there’s no unregistered SIM operating in the network. Now, there might be issues where a registered SIM is being used by someone who is not the person that registered the SIM,” Maida said.
Source: Getty Images
“I think we are all guilty of this, because I recall when we had a session at the National Assembly and we were explaining some of these things to them. We told them that with the way things are working now, if you send your driver or your house help to go and register a SIM simply because you don’t want your identity to be known, you are actually committing a crime.”
“So, are all SIMs registered? Yes. Are all SIMs being used by the person who registered them? That, I cannot say 100 percent yes, and that is not something that the NCC can control. I pray that it’s not until we have an incident and people are embarrassed that we’ll correct that behavior. I guess on that part, we’ll try and do more enlightenment to educate people on the consequences. Because right now, if anything happens, I can give a name to say this is the person who registered that SIM. And of course, when they hold you, you can now start explaining what you know.”
Maida went on to say that it is inappropriate for someone to claim to have paid a fee to register a SIM card on someone else's behalf.
NCC approves 52 new mobile phone models for use in Nigeria
Legit.ng reported the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has revealed that the total number of approved phones in Nigeria is now 2,397 as of Wednesday, 20 August 2025.
This is a significant increase from 2,303 approved phones as at August 2024.
The list of mobile phone manufacturers with devices approved for use in Nigeria by the NCC cuts across global and regional brands, including Alcatel, Motorola, Vivo, Apple, Lenovo Mobile, Xiaomi, and Gionee Communication.
Source: Legit.ng
