The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Financial system, Mr. Bosun Tijani, has mentioned bandits use “a particular form of expertise” to make calls and evade surveillance.
The minister, in a tv interview over the weekend, defined the steps the federal authorities has taken to sort out insecurity by way of the telecommunications sector.
He mentioned the monitoring of bandits’ requires intelligence functions is “extra technical” than Nigerians assume.
The telecom sector has been underneath scrutiny since 2020, when the federal government launched the necessary Nationwide Identification Quantity (SIM) linkage to curb fraud, nameless communication, and crimes facilitated by way of unregistered strains.
Nonetheless, Tijani revealed that some prison networks had shifted techniques, counting on applied sciences that enable them to route calls throughout a number of towers, a technique that turns into significantly efficient in distant or poorly linked areas.
Tijani, who acknowledged public fear over instances of kidnapping and ransom negotiations allegedly performed by way of unregistered SIMs, mentioned the criminals bounced calls off a number of towers to throw off safety brokers monitoring their communication.
“There was an train that was performed by the telcos to wash out all SIMs. The explanation the President pushed us to put money into towers in these areas was the truth that we realised there was a particular kind of expertise they (criminals) had been utilizing to name,” he defined.
To handle these vulnerabilities, the minister outlined a connectivity technique involving satellite tv for pc upgrades and fibre growth.
He famous that Nigeria stays the “solely West African nation” at the moment working its personal communications satellites, a functionality the federal government is now strengthening.
“For this reason we’re upgrading our two satellites, in order that if our towers will not be working, our satellites will work,” he mentioned.
“The explanation why the president really pushed us to put money into towers in these areas is that we realised that there was a particular form of expertise that they [the bandits] had been utilizing to name,” Tijani mentioned.
“They weren’t utilizing the traditional towers; they bounced calls off a number of towers. That’s the reason they get pleasure from residing in unconnected areas.”
Tijani mentioned the federal authorities is upgrading the nation’s satellites to enhance safety monitoring.
He added that the state of affairs emphasised the necessity for “vital funding” in telecommunication infrastructure.
“As a result of if our towers will not be working, our satellites will work,” he mentioned.
“For those who go to China, they’ve over 4 million 5G towers. The entire variety of towers we’ve got in Nigeria is nearly 40,000,” Tijani mentioned.
Chuks Okocha
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