TWO days to the deadline set by the Nigerian Communications Commission
(NCC), an investigation by The Guardian has revealed that about 27 million
Subscribers Identification Modules (SIMs) may be disconnected if they are not
registered by June 30.
As at Monday, virtually none of the telecommunications operators has
confidently recorded 100 per cent compliance from its subscribers on the
registration of their SIMs. This is despite various campaigns, advertorials and
freebies offered by the service providers to woo subscribers to confirm the
status of their SIMs and if not registered, to do so.
Besides, despite the continuous drop in the quality of service, subscribers
in the country might have spent N444.6 billion through phone calls in the first
four months of 2013.
Indeed, latest statistics from the NCC revealed that Nigeria, as in the
first quarter of the year, has 164 million connected lines with 119 million
being active.
Ahead of the SIM registration deadline, operators had sent several short
message services (SMS) to subscribers to remind them of the deadline, in
addition to various telemarketing calls.
MTN for instance claimed to have wooed its unregistered subscribers with a
gift of free airtime of N400.
But going by investigations, virtually all the players, including Airtel,
Globacom, Etisalat, even the troubled Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA),
Visafone, Starcomms and Multilinks put together may lose close to 27 million
subscribers from their networks.
Findings revealed that while some subscribers are dead, others have
relocated. There is also the challenge of inadequate registration agents,
especially in the hinterlands. The trouble spots in the country are another
challenge to the operators, as they claim lack of access to those areas. Some
SIMs have also been damaged and lost.
In an MTN Group’s financial report, released from South Africa, the
company claimed that its Nigerian arm has recorded about 87 per cent compliance
with the SIM card registration, stressing that more efforts and campaigns
could still encourage others yet to register to do so.
MTN Nigeria currently has over 52 million subscribers, the highest in the
country.
Other players, including Airtel, Glo and Etisalat, will also be affected by
the NCC deadline, as all of them are yet to get their subscribers to register
their SIMs.
NCC statistics put Airtel, Globacom and Etisalat subscribers at 24.1
million; 24.3 million and 15.1 million respectively.
The Guardian’s investigation revealed that compliance from subscribers of
the trio is still below 90 per cent.
According to a top official at Etisalat Nigeria, who spoke on the condition
of anonymity, the company with over 15 million subscribers in its few years of
operations in the country hopes that its subscribers register their SIMs before
the deadline. He said that there had been appreciable co-operation from
the subscribers.
During an interview with journalists, the Corporate Service Executive at MTN
Nigeria, Mr. Akinwale Goodluck, said the operator had been sensitising its
subscribers who are yet to comply to immediately register their lines or lose
ownership of the numbers by June 30.
Goodluck said MTN Nigeria was ready to fully comply with the NCC’s
directive. “As you know, NCC has said come June 30, all unregistered subscriber
identification module (SIM) lines will be disconnected. I think operators have
come a long way in developing a database. As an industry, with the regulator,
we’ve put together a reliable database.”
But the President of the National Association Telecommunications Subscribers
of Nigeria (NATCOMS), Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, has appealed to NCC to extend the
deadline by three months, which he described as “one-way final” warning.
Ogunbanjo, who recalled that NCC introduced the SIM registration programme
in March 2011 and was to end it in September 2011, said “NATCOMS asked for a
12-month extension while the Association of Licensed Telecommunications
Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) asked for a nine-month extension.
“Perhaps, NCC added 12 months and nine months together and extended by 21
months, which is now expiring on June 30, 2013.”
The NATCOMS boss noted that there had been various issues around the
exercise in the last three weeks.
According to him, during the SIM registration, some “umbrella registration
agents” were not collecting the full details needed because of their rush to
register many subscribers so as to get paid. He added that some of these
agents were asking subscribers to pay N100 before registration, which according
to him, discourages subscribers.
According to Ogunbanjo, some of the agents who belong to some network
operators collect other operators’ SIM cards for registration in order to shore
up the number of SIM cards they register daily. He added that some agents copy
their daily registered subscribers and give to their colleagues in business as
some form of ‘help’.
“In view of the submissions above, a lot of subscribers will be locked out
due to no fault of theirs as they think they have registered their SIM cards.
“Against the backdrop of this and in order to ensure that every subscriber
is given fair consideration, we are appealing to the NCC to give Nigerian
subscribers a three-month one-way final warning extension on SIM cards
registration. (i.e. subscribers to be able to receive calls).”
But in an interview with The Guardian, the Director of Public Affairs at
NCC, Dr. Tony Ojobo, re-affirmed the commitment of NCC to disconnecting every
unregistered SIM by June 30.
“There cannot be any extension. June 30 is definite”, he stated.
