NCC to Issue One Short Code for All Telecoms Subscribers 

Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan 

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has expressed its readiness to establish a single short code that users of all networks in the country would be making use for services from the operators.

The Director, Technical Standards and Network Integrity of the commission, Mr. Bako Wakil, made the disclosure in Ibadan, while speaking with journalists, at a two-day stakeholder’s forum, tagged, ‘Talk To The Regulator’ (TTTR), the first in the year 2022.

He said the short code will be used by the subscribers of all the operators for customer service, loading of airtime and checking of account balance.

Wakil who maintained that the commission would continue to roll out policies that would make things easier and better for telecoms subscribers in the country, added that the commission is also putting in place a device management solution that will take care of phone theft while urging Nigerians to check its website for list of of phones it type-approved. 

According to him, the commission is not going back on making things easier for telecoms subscribers in the country, stating that it has given the operators a timeline of one year to prepare for the unique change in the interest of their subscribers. 

He said, “We want to harmonise such that we have one short code across all networks for loading credit or top up and for checking your balance. We are working with the operators right now and we want to give them a timeline like about a year for all of them to work concurrently because we cannot just cut them off like that.  It will also be publicised for people to be aware. After that, the old short codes will cease to function. This is just to make life easy for Nigerians.

“Theft of phones has also become very frequent in this country especially during occasions like wedding, funeral and all those kinds of stuff. Thus we are putting a device management solution that will take care of all sorts. That solution will also take care of theft and substandard handsets.”