Public Outrage over Vendors’ Recharge Cards Hike

Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and MTN Nigeria have washed their hands and refused to be drawn into the festering battle between consumers and retailers of MTN recharge cards who have added between N10 and N20 to the price of top up cards, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can report.

The vendors had during the last yuletide season increased prices of recharge cards; a development which has attracted public outrage.

Commercial Telephonists, SIMs, and Recharge Cards Retailers Association of Nigeria (COTSARCRAN) said the increment was from MTN.

MTN, has however denied any increment insisting that the face value of all its recharge card denominations remain the same.

Elsewhere, NCC exonerated the regulating body from the confusion, stating that its establishing act does not permit NCC to regulate matters on SIM cards and recharge cards sales.

But the little known COTSARCRAN which was registered only on January this year, said it will only revert to the normal prices when MTN and the dealers have removed  the added on their bulk purchases.

Mr. Adie Thomas Akomaye, president of COTSARCRAN, said, “On behalf of the entire members of the COTSARCRAN, I wish to appeal to MTN subscribers and the general public over the N10 increment on MTN recharge cards by MTN Company and its dealers.

Akomaye brandished documents and told Nigeria CommunicationsWeek  that “I promise that immediately MTN Company and its dealers resolve the issue and return to the initial price of minus N10, my members, the retailers will also return (back) to the minus N10 price with immediate effect”.

MTN on the hand maintained that “We have not effected a price increase and the retail price of the various denominations of our recharge cards and recharge vouchers remain the same”
 
According to Wale Goodluck, corporate services executive, MTN Nigeria, the recharge vouchers come in the following denominations: N1, 500, N750, N400, N200 and N100 and none of the prices has been reviewed upward.

“Any such hike,” said Goodluck, is ‘contrary to MTN’s wishes or knowledge. MTN has a well-established distribution structure and all our authorized partners within this structure are obliged to sell recharge cards at their face value. Any variance from the authorized face value of recharge cards is without MTN’s knowledge or authority.”

MTN’s 55 million customers can purchase airtime via recharge cards or recharge vouchers as well as through a virtual top up.

The airtime recharge options are generally distributed via a very extensive trade and distribution network which has over the years, successfully enhanced accessibility to airtime and customer convenience.

Goodluck assured customers that the company is currently working assiduously to arrest the situation.

In the meantime, he said, “We urge our esteemed customers in the affected areas to explore other options of purchasing airtime such as MTN Virtual Top Up (VTU)or  MTN Auto-Top Up”.

 Countering that Akomaye said: “MTN cannot deny it does not know that the dealers added the amounts. Other operators have not increased anything. They started the process around last year November. We were silent by then, because our registration with CAC was on-going. In other words, we sell recharge cards based on the amount we purchased.

“Today, the increment is a national thing. MTN started it when they reduced the number of dealers from 17 to 12. Those who left did not want to play the card according to what MTN presented to them. It is an exorbitant extortion. They should solve the equation with their dealers and revert to the old prices”. He aded.

When asked why some vendors still maintain the old pricing posture, he said, “I have some cards I bought about 3 months ago; so I can afford to sell at the old price. However, anybody buying card now does that under the new prices”.

 Speaking on the matter in a telephone interview with Nigeria CommunicationsWeek, Tony Ojobo, director of Corporate Communications, Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), said that the regulator primes customers’ satisfaction and has initiated, launched and implemented the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) scheme as a window to address such occurrences. 

Ojobo, said, “NCC does not have any powers to regulate the amount vendors collect on SIM cards or recharge cards. If we flash back, price of SIM cards were quite high, but NCC’s interventional schemes and customer awareness programmes led to the mega clash in the prices, particularly, the SIM cards.

“Meanwhile, NCC has been proactive; that is why we initiated and successfully implemented the MNP scheme. It is a window of opportunity for any customer that feels shortchanged by one operator to try the other. So, the present issue of an operator increasing the amount of its recharge cards is wholly a business decision; if they actually did,” he said.

 
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