Subscribers Ask NCC to Extend Sim Registration by 3 Months

National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers of Nigeria (NATCOMS) has appealed to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to extend the on-going Sim card registration programme by another three months to give every subscriber a fair consideration.

The body said several factors have all conspired to prevent many subscribers from registering their Sim cards as prescribed by law.

Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, national president, NATCOMS, stated this after the NCC insisted at the weekend that the June 30 deadline for the Subscriber Identity Module card registration exercise would not be extended.

In a letter to Dr. Eugene Juwah, executive vice chairman, NCC titled “Appeal to NCC for 3-Month One-Way Final Warning on Sim Registration”the association blamed Sim registration agents for sharp practices that discouraged subscribers from registering their Sims.

Part of the letter read: “In the last two to three weeks, reports, issues and concerns reaching us are as follows:
1.    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.
2.    Some umbrella Sim registration agents, during the active registration period and even now are asking Subscribers to pay N100; a situation that discouraged subscribers.
3.    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.
4.    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.
Against the backdrop of the above and in order to ensure that every Subscriber is given fair consideration, we are appealing to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to give Nigerian Subscribers a 3-Month One-Way final warning extension on Sim Cards registration. (i.e. Subscribers to be able to receive calls).

But the commission had through Tony Ojobo, director, Public Affairs, NCC at the weekend said “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,” he said.

Ojobo, however, advised subscribers to make efforts to know what their registration status was if they had any doubts.

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.