BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE & EMMANUEL ELEBEKE ,LAGOS
NIGERIANS who failed to beat National Communications Commission,NCC’s, deadline for the registration of their Subscriber Identification Module,SIM, cards, Wednesday , have been handed a 24-hour window to do so or forget about their lines.
Ruling out extension for the exercise, NCC said it would begin to collate the registration data today and subscribers, who were yet to be listed could do so before the end of the collation and harmonisation in the afternoon.
In a statement by Mr. Reuben Muoka (Head, Media & Public Relations), NCC said: “The commission is fully aware of the clamour by many interested stakeholders, and organisations, for extension of the registration of existing SIM cards.
”However, the commission believes that the six months period provided for the exercise, gave ample time for all phone users in the country to register their SIM cards with either their service providers, or the NCC-appointed registration consultants.
”It is in deference to the clamour by the stakeholders, that the commission had provided this opportunity for all those who had not registered on account of logistic challenges, to do so without any further delay while the harmonisation is ongoing.
”Within the limited period of the harmonisation, service providers will be directed not to disconnect any subscriber on account of the registration until the commission announces the completion of the process after which those who remain unregistered will be disconnected.”
Thousands besiege centres
Meanwhile, thousands of Nigerians, yesterday, besieged registration centres across the country to register their SIM cards. But to their chagrin, some subscribers went home disappointed as they could not register their SIMs.
At one of Starcomms registration offices in Festac Town, Lagos, no fewer than 200 persons were on queue by 1 p.m and some of them, who could not withstand the heat in the office occasioned by the snail speed at which the exercise proceeded, left in disappointment.
Sources feared last night that about 20 million of the nation’s 90 million subscribers were yet to be registered when the lid was placed on the exercise.
Going by the deadline, subscribers who failed to register their SIM cards by yesterday, would be cut off.
Overwhelming calls for extension
To ensure that a sizeable number of subscribers were not cut off with dire consequences for – subscribers, operators and even the economy, some stakeholders yesterday, appealed to NCC to extend the exercise.
Those who sought extension include Association of Licensed Telecom Operators in Nigeria, ALTON, a member of the community of consumer rights organisations, Leadership Watch,LW, and National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers, NATCOMS, among others.
The ALTON had weekend, called for extension of the exercise. Chairman of the association, Gbenga Adebayo, hinged the clamour on the ground that the exercise had successfully registered about 50 per cent of subscribers.Adebayo said the exercise encountered several challenges which had a significant impact on the outcome. He listed some of them to include inability of SIM registrations agents to access certain parts of the country, especially the hinterland and rural areas, conduct of 2011 general elections, post- elections violence, torrential rainfall and accompanying flood in various parts of the country.
lull in activities resulting from Christian Lent and Moslem Ramadan and heightened threats to security following spate of bombings across the country.
Relatedly, some stakeholders anchored the extension clamour on what prevailed in other parts of the world. In many other countries where the same exercise has been done, significant time was given to enable operators effectively conclude the exercise. For example, Malaysia with a total population of 27.5 million people took a total of 24 months to conclude the SIM registration exercise; while South Africa, with a population of about 50 million, took 18 months to register all subscribers.
Subscribers cry out in Gombe
Some subscribers of the various mobile phone networks in Gombe State yesterday have appealed to the NCC to extend the SIM card registration deadline. They told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Gombe that the extension would afford those who had not registered to do so.
Adamu Turaki and Ismail Adamu said that there was need for extension due to some challenges faced by customers during the exercise. They said that they were among those who registered at the beginning of the exercise but was later told that their registration was not successful.
Miss Helen Agom, said that she had registered earlier but was surprised that the same SIM was also registered at another centre, which means the earlier registration was not successful.
Agom said that some subscribers who had registered were still receiving information from their network providers that they had not been registered. She said that the feedback from the network providers had caused a lot of confusion to subscribers.
Another subscriber, Aishat Mohammed said there was need to extend the exercise because about 40 per cent of subscribers were yet to register.
Mr. Segun Akinwale, a registration officer of Glo Network, said that one of the major challenges faced by the network was the failure of some subscribers to give their real names.
Akinwale said that some subscribers even refused to answer questions about their parents’ names.
He said that the network also experienced the problem with some under-age children coming to register lines that were not theirs.
Rights group seeks extension of deadline
A member of the community of consumer rights organizations in Nigeria, Leadership Watch (LW) also called for extension of the exercise.
President of the group, Dr. Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, said having partnered with the NCC in awareness campaigns for the exercise in the last six months, the organization observed that difficult terrains in the Niger Delta creeks, many rural areas in the north; under estimation of the Nigerian factor; the need to give opportunity to Nigerians in diaspora and Nigerians who might have traveled out of the country during the period and would still like to return and register their cards among others necessitate the need for extension.
The National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS) had on Tuesday appealed to NCC to extend the SIM card registration exercise by 12 months.
President of the association, Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, said the extension would enable the projected 40 per cent unregistered SIM cards subscribers register their SIMs.
“From industry information gathered in the last 13 months, the exercise is rated to have covered about 50 per cent to 60 per cent of the more than 90 million SIM Cards in Nigeria.
“What will happen to subscribers who have not registered?” Ogunbanjo wondered.
