Blackberry To Be Banned In Nigeria?

It looks as if our cousins over in Nigeria are looking at regulations that will see Blackberry services in Nigeria.

: Blackberry services could be banned in NigeriaAbdulmajeed Al.mutawee || twitter.com/almutawee / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

Online Nigeria reports of plans afoot that will make it compulsory for ‘any licensee in the nation’s telecoms market to provide access to its communications facilities for necessary interception by the law enforcement agencies’.

The measures will be called the Lawful interception of communications regulations.

By their nature Blackberry services are encrypted and where there is a criminal investigation, cooperation from its network is unlikely.

Specifically, Section 13 of the regulation empowers the National Security Adviser, NSA, and the State Security Service, SSS, to request the disclosure of protected or encrypted communications. Failure to do so will mean a fine of N5m. Continued violation will result in a fine of N500,000 per day.

Famously, Middle Eastern and Asian governments have been critical of the system pointing to the fact that militants dip under the radar knowing governments will not be able to do anything about it.

Zimbabwe is known to be reluctant to allow Blackberry services in the country for what are unofficially security reasons. The services are not explicitly banned by they have not been licensed.

We have heard stories of people refusing to come and have a business discussion in Zimbabwe because Blackberry services were not alive here, which is a bit silly if you ask us.

With information from Online Nigeria