NCC Strengthens Regulatory Foundation For TIRMS Platform With Amendments

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has moved to strengthen the regulatory foundation for the Telecoms Identity Risk Management System (TIRMS) with targeted amendments to the Quality of Service (QOS) Business Rules and Registration of Communications Subscribers Regulations Business Rules.

Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the NCC, Dr Aminu Maida, said that this move has become necessary to safeguard the Mobile Station International Subscriber Directory Number (MSISDN), commonly known as the SIM or mobile phone number, from the challenging vulnerabilities associated with fraud.

The NCC boss, who was represented by the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management (ECSM) of the Commission, Rimini Makama, said this in his opening remarks, during a stakeholders’ consultative process on the TIRMS Platform in Abuja on Thursday.

He said that these amendments will among other things, require operators to notify affected subscribers at least Fourteen (14) days before any line is churned, mandate the submission of all churn number details to the TIRMS platform within Seven (7) days of completion of the churn process, and establish a new framework for the blocking of fraudulently registered or fraudulently utilized MSISDNs.

“These changes are designed to promote transparency, protect subscribers, and ensure regulatory clarity in support of the platform’s objective,” he said.

Dr Maida noted that, inasmuch as the mobile number has evolved into a critical identifier underpinning financial transactions, digital authentication, and access to essential services across all sectors of the Nigerian economy, this evolution has, however, created new and challenging vulnerabilities.

He said, “The fraudulent use of churned, recycled, swapped, and barred MISISDNs has become a significant vector for financial fraud and identity theft, eroding public trust in our digital platforms and undermining the identity of systems we have worked hard to build.

“It is in direct response to these challenges that the Commission has initiated the TIRMS Platform. The TIRMS Platform is a secure, regulatory-backed, cross-sectoral platform designed to provide a uniform approach for managing all risks relating to the integrity and utilisation of registered MSISDNs on the Nigerian Communications network.”

He added that the objectives are to improve access to mobile numbers across key sectors to aid user accountability and to reduce fraud risks by enabling service providers to verify mobile numbers flagged for dormancy, suspicious, criminal, or fraudulent activities before granting access to services.

According to him, it is also to enhance digital security by ensuring service providers across all sectors can proactively verify and validate customer mobile number status.

Olatokunbo Oyeleye, Director of Cybersecurity and Internet Governance at the Commission, in her remarks, emphasised safeguarding public trust in Nigeria’s digital platform, which must be embedded across the entire value chain.

She noted that the consultation focused on how the industry will strengthen trust by leveraging the TIRMS as a centralised, regulatory-backed end platform, designed to boost coordination across relevant sectors to enhance identity assurance of mobile numbers and prevent fraud arising from churned, swapped, and recycled mobile numbers.

She added that the regulatory approach has become necessary as part of the Commission’s rule-making process under the NCC Act 2003, in which a stakeholder consultation document was published on the Commission’s website on 27 February 2026, detailing the proposed amendments.

Other regulatory agencies that are stakeholders in the sector include the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and other key regulators.

“The aim is to ensure that every mobile number can be trusted by users, service providers, regulators and by the entire digital ecosystem,” she said.

A Senior Manager at the Commission, Emaiban Echono, in her presentation, said that there was growing reliance on mobile-enabled e-platforms, payments, e-commerce, e-government, and remote work. She added that fragmented identities across different networks and services have led to an increase in SIM swap attacks and identity theft for end users.

“So this all points to the need for a real-time privacy-preserving and risk-based verification at the number level, which gave birth to TIRMS,” she said.

The event was a statutory opportunity for industry experts, security agencies, financial sector regulators, government agencies, telecoms operators, consumer groups, and concerned citizens to unite around a shared commitment to building a safer, more trustworthy digital communications environment for the country.