NCC tells Nigerians to dial *315# before buying a phone

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) advises buyers to dial *315# or use its website to check that a phone is type-approved and registered for Nigerian networks. Eduyemi Ogoh, the commission’s director of technical standards and network integrity, says the check is especially important for second-hand and imported phones and uses the device’s IMEI. Type approval applies to a phone model and is the responsibility of manufacturers, vendors or importers, while verification registers each individual device. About 231 million devices already in use before October 7 were registered, and the NCC says its checker does not access users’ calls, contacts or messages.