The Federal Ministry of communications and digital economy has warned against unauthorised use and sale of frequency enabled devices across the country.
The Minister of communications and digital economy, Professor Isa Ali Pantami who was represented by the Director, Human resources management, Famous Eseduwo while briefing Journalists in Kano said, the implication of unauthorised use and sale of private mobile radios is a great disservice to the nation.
He lamented that Kano has many vendors and users of Walkie-talkie and therefore, as part of the ministry’s sensitization effort lined up for this year’s Radio Monitoring Week, staff have been mobilised to educate and caution people about the implications of using the devices without licence.
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“Radio frequencies can be generated from anywhere and side to communicate wirelessly either in a closet or in the open, for useful ventures or clandestine purposes. In view of the importance of this resource in driving the economy of the nations, there is need for its efficient and effective use and management.
“Today, with emerging technologies, many more applications are coming up thereby creating new products, new industries, new opportunities, new knowledge arrears, and even new challenges. Most of these challenges stem from the proliferation of generic radios being imported into the country and used by citizens, who claim to be ignorant of its implication on the country.These radios communicate on unlicensed frequencies.
“The effect of this is that the operating frequencies on these devices interfere with the frequencies that might have been assigned to other services thereby leading to cross talk and distorted communication. This situation should not continue due to the damaging effect it has on our productivity as a nation.”
He said, the ministry will hence decided to take this sensitisation to the door steps of vendors/users instead of waiting for them in order to have government’s intentions appreciated.
“Spectrum is a national asset and hence it belongs to all Nigerians. It is therefore the responsibility of every citizen or user to ensure that the spectrum is not misused. The control of spectrum is vested on the Federal Government according to the Nigerian constitution as it is in the exclusive list.
“The main objective of this event is to encourage all users and prospective non-commercial users of radio frequency spectrum, operators and vendors of radiocommunications equipment to obtain appropriate licence or authorization from the Ministry since it is the responsibility of every citizen or user to ensure that the spectrum is not misused.
“The effect of using unlicensed frequencies cannot be overemphasized. Aside the fact that government loses revenue, the security of the nation is threatened through illegal transmission.
“The activities of illegal users of frequency spectrum are becoming worrisome to government going by available statistics. Since I took over as the Minister in 2019, the ministry under my watch has clamped down on illegal users of radio frequency spectrum to the extent that in 2020, 106 illegal users were detected in one radio monitoring activity across the country. While in 2021, a total of about 140 illegal users were detected in another radio monitoring activity. This scenario should not be allowed to continue because it poses a great danger to the country.”
However, the Minister revealed that, the ministry has procured and commissioned state-of-the-art equipment that is capable of monitoring, detecting, locating and denying service to sources of electromagnetic emissions deployed to each of the International Radio Monitoring, Interference and Survey Centers (IRMI & SC) at Abuja-FCT that serves North Central zone, Azare, Bauchi state, that serves the North East zone, Gusau-Zamfara state that serves the North West zone, Ipaja- Lagos state that serves South West zone, and Ogoja-Cross River state that serves South South zone while the sixth is due to be commissioned soon.
