Subscribers Appeal to Comtech Minister to Extend Sim Registration

National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers of Nigeria (NATCOMS) has appealed Mrs. Omobola Johnson, minister of Communications Technology to use her office to extend the just concluded Sim card registration programme by another three months to give every subscriber a fair consideration.

NATCOMS had earlier made similar appeal to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) which insisted there will be no further extension because the exercise has been on for two years now.

But in a passionate letter to the minister Thursday, Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, national president, NATCOMS, argued that there was need to ensure that every subscriber is given fair consideration.

Ogunbanjo said that “the fact is that a lot of Subscribers will be locked out due to no fault of theirs as they think they have registered their Sim cards”

The subscribers’ association boss blamed Sim registration agents for sharp practices that discouraged subscribers from registering their Sims.

According to him, during the Sim registration exercise some umbrella Sim registration agents were not collecting the full details needed because of the rush by the agents to register as many subscribers so as get paid big.

He said that “Some umbrella Sim registration agents, during the active registration period and even now are asking Subscribers to pay N100; a situation that discouraged subscribers. Some umbrella Sim registration agents, even when they are agents of a particular network operator, collect other operators Sim cards for registration in order to shore up the number of Sim cards they register daily”

“Some umbrella Sim registration 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” he added.

 NCC has however insisted that “There will be no extension for this. Sim registration has been on for two years now. Come June 30, all unregistered Sims will be disconnected,”

The Sim card registration exercise began since March 28, 2011 and NCC had in many fora urged subscribers to take opportunity of many windows opened to register their Sim cards.

The NCC, whose initial deadline for the Sim registration was on the September 28, 2011, had since begun harmonisation and collation the results of the exercise.

Nigeria embarked on Sim card registration to check the increasing rate of crimes and kidnappings in the country.

Criminals exploiting the anonymity the mobile phones provide use the devices in perpetuating various crimes.

Also the exercise is to help develop a central data management system of all telecoms subscribers, to enable security agents make use of such data in fighting crimes.