Telecommunications consumers across the country are bemoaning the cessation of SIM registration since about two months by telecom operators acting on the orders of the Federal government.
The Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy stopped telecom operators from registering new SIMs or swapping old SIMs for their subscribers following a policy to use the National Identity Number (NIN) issued by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) as the only standard for identifying phone users in the country.
The ministry directed operators to connect every subscriber’s SIM with his or her NIN and gave a deadline of the end of the year, 2020 to cut off subscribers who failed to integrate their NIN with their SIM.
The deadline has been extended a few times considering the stampede that ensued as millions of phone users struggled to comply within the narrow windows allowed. The new deadline is April 6.
Those without NINs have been besieging the NIN enrolment centres across the country to get the number.
MSN reported that some smart Nigerians were cashing in on the situation by collecting money from intending NIN registrants to speed up the usually tedious process of acquiring the number. Read the report here.
As this report is being filed, it is still impossible for subscribers who have lost their SIMs to get a replacement because the operators are yet to resume SIM registration.
This has left many people without functional phone lines.
Timothy Adeyemi, a Public Relations professional told MSN he had not been able to retrieve a line his wife lost in December till date.
“I got the SIM for my wife over two years ago and duly registered it. Then, sometime in December she took a commercial motorcycle (okada) on her way to church and couldn’t find the phone when she disembarked. I have visited Gloworld up to five times to retrieve the SIM without luck.
“The first two times was before the NCC gave the NIN order, but the operator’s server at their Adeola Odeku outlet was down on both occasions and I had to return to my office. Then the NIN order came and I have been checking with the operator ever since. Each time I visit they tell me NCC has not allowed them to do SIM registration up till today.”
Another telecom user, Ibrahim Tahir, a businessman with offices in Abeokuta and Magboro, said he had been virtually thrown out of business since he lost his SIM in December.
“I had the misfortune of losing my phones to thieves. Since then, customers have not been able to reach me. I wish I had two phones. I use only one line and that line is not reachable now. I only rely on my friend’s phone at work and my wife’s phone at home”, he lamented.
Titilayo Arowolo, a hairdresser at Arepo, Obafemi Owode Local Government lamented that she had been rendered incommunicado for over a month since someone stole her phone from her shop.
“It has been hellish, Customers that will usually book before coming to my shop can no longer do so. Some days I will be idle all day and suddenly by evening, five customers will come at the same time and some will not want to wait. That is how I have been losing money. I used to organise when customers can come in for their turn, but not anymore.”
Former presidential candidate, Dele Momodu, also felt the pinch of the new policy recently and he openly criticised the Nigerian government for frustrating citizens.
Momodu said the decision had rendered no fewer than two million Nigerian youth jobless.
The former presidential candidate described the decision as unreasonable and cruel, wondering how a country could shut down its economy because of mere national identity registration.
“How can a country shut down economic activities for months by banning the sale of new SIM cards for voice and data because of a mere NIN registration!!” Momodu tweeted.
“Why are we so unreasonably cruel in a country with an army of unemployed youths… We need deliverance…”
Many other telecom users have since been responding to his tweet narrating their ordeals since the policy took effect.
It remains to be seen if the NIN-SIM integration of all telecom subscribers in the country will be concluded before the new deadline of April 6.
