Why NCC is cracking down on masked international calls

By Chinenye Anuforo
[email protected]

For many Nigerians, a phone call from abroad should be easy to identify. A relative calling from the United Kingdom, a business partner in the United States or a prospective employer overseas would normally appear as an international number.

But what happens when that international call suddenly appears on your phone as an ordinary Nigerian number?

That is the problem the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says is resurfacing in Nigeria’s telecommunications industry.

The telecom regulator has raised concerns over a renewed wave of call masking, warning that the practice is not merely a technical violation but a threat to telecom revenues, security and the integrity of Nigeria’s communications system.

The warning followed the NCC Governing Board’s 110th meeting held recently. The board said it had received reports indicating that call masking activities were returning to the sector.

The NCC reaffirmed its zero-tolerance position on the practice and said call masking undermines legitimate telecommunications operations, distorts industry revenues and constitutes economic sabotage capable of affecting the wider Nigerian economy.

So, what exactly is call masking? In simple terms, call masking is the practice of disguising the true origin or identity of a telephone call.

One common form affecting international traffic occurs when an international call is manipulated so that it appears to the Nigerian recipient as though it came from a local Nigerian number.

A call that actually originated outside Nigeria can therefore arrive on a subscriber’s phone looking like an ordinary local call.

And there is a financial reason why this happens.

International calls are subject to different termination arrangements from local calls. By disguising international traffic as local traffic, those behind the scheme can attempt to bypass applicable international termination charges and profit from the difference.

The practice has been a long-running problem for Nigeria’s telecommunications industry.

Years before the latest NCC warning, the country was already battling what is commonly known as SIM-boxing or interconnect bypass fraud.

A SIM box is a device capable of holding multiple SIM cards. International voice traffic can be routed through such equipment and then terminated through Nigerian SIM cards, making the traffic appear to have originated locally.

The financial consequences have historically been enormous.

Daily Sun had previously reported the issue stating the billions of dollars the telecom industry was estimated to be losing to SIM-boxing and related call-masking activities.

But the problem has never been only about money.

It can affect the ordinary Nigerian holding a mobile phone.

Ikechukwu Nnamani, Chief Executive Officer of Medallion Communications, highlighted this problem during an earlier industry discussion on call masking.

Nnamani said he had personally encountered calls that appeared to be masked international calls, making it difficult to know who was actually calling.

He said he sometimes did not answer calls because he did not recognise the number, only to discover later that the call had been an international one.

His experience illustrates a frustrating reality for subscribers: a person waiting for an important call from abroad may simply ignore it because the number appearing on the phone does not look like an international number.

That could mean missing a business opportunity, an employment opportunity, an important family call or another time-sensitive communication.

Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, President of the National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS), has also raised concerns about call masking and the need for stronger action against the practice.

Ogunbanjo pointed to the possibility of unlicensed players benefiting from the practice and called attention to the need for the telecommunications industry and regulators to address the technical loopholes being exploited.

The issue becomes even more serious when viewed from a security perspective.

If the true origin of a call can be concealed, tracing the communication becomes more difficult. That creates room for abuse.

A system designed to make international calls appear local can potentially be exploited by fraudsters or other criminals who want to hide the origin of their communications.

This is one reason the NCC’s latest warning is particularly significant.

The regulator is no longer framing call masking simply as a technical problem or a revenue issue. It is concerned about the wider implications for the security and integrity of Nigeria’s telecommunications ecosystem.

There is also a question of fairness. Telecommunications operators invest billions of naira in infrastructure, spectrum, networks and services. When international traffic is diverted through unauthorised channels and presented as local traffic, legitimate operators can lose revenue.

Government can also lose revenue.

And the market becomes distorted because operators and entities operating outside the legitimate framework can gain an unfair advantage.

This is why the NCC has promised renewed action. The Commission said it would work with relevant security and law-enforcement agencies, as well as industry stakeholders, to identify, prevent and eliminate call masking activities.

The latest development also comes at a time when the regulator is strengthening other aspects of Nigeria’s telecommunications identity and security infrastructure.

The NCC has been working on systems designed to improve the management of devices and telecommunications identities, including its Telecommunications Identity Risk Management System, which is expected to go live in October 2026.

The bigger issue is that Nigeria has seen this battle before.

The NCC has previously taken enforcement action against suspected call-masking operations, including blocking numbers associated with the practice.

Yet, years later, the regulator is once again talking about its resurgence.

That raises an important question: why does call masking keep coming back?

Part of the answer lies in the economics.

As long as there is money to be made by disguising international traffic as local traffic, there will be an incentive for unscrupulous actors to search for weaknesses in the system.

And as technology evolves, the methods used to exploit telecommunications networks can evolve with it.

That means the NCC’s challenge is not simply to shut down existing call-masking operations.

It must also identify the new methods being used to recreate the problem.

For ordinary Nigerians, however, there is one immediate lesson.

When you receive a call that looks like it is coming from a Nigerian number, you cannot always assume that the caller is physically in Nigeria.

The number displayed on your screen may not tell the complete story about where the call originated.

That is precisely why the NCC is worried. Call masking may sound like a technical telecommunications issue, but underneath it are much bigger questions about money, fraud, consumer protection, national security and trust.

Nigeria’s telecom networks are now deeply embedded in everyday economic life. Nigerians use their mobile numbers not just to make calls, but to access banking services, fintech platforms, businesses, social media and other digital services.

When the identity and origin of communications can be manipulated, that trust is put at risk.

The NCC has now made its position clear, call masking is not something it intends to tolerate.

The real test will be whether the regulator, telecom operators, security agencies and other stakeholders can prevent the old problem from gaining another foothold in nation’s telecommunications ecosystem.