FOLLOWING a decision by the Federal Government, telecom providers banned their lines from making calls on Tuesday, leaving some communications consumers stranded.
After the deadline for SIM-NIN verification expired on March 31, the Federal Government urged telecom firms to enforce compliance with its National Identification Number-Subscriber Identity Module policy by banning outbound calls on all unlinked lines.
The government revealed that 125 million SIMs had submitted their NINs for linkage while issuing the instruction.
As of February 2022, the Nigerian Communications Commission reported 197.77 million active telecom subscribers.
After the Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria stated that its members will comply with the directive, the government regulation as been set to affect over 72.77 million active telecom users.
In a statement on Monday, it said, “ALTON members are committed to complying with the instructions and call on telecommunication subscribers who have not obtained and/or linked a NIN to their SIMs, to do so at any of the designated centres.”
Many users discovered that they were unable to make calls on their lines on Tuesday.
Reports yesterday revealed that users had been flocking to telecom service centers in droves to link their NINs to their SIMs.
Despite a server outage, MTN staff were observed at the Ojodu center attempting to assist users in linking their SIMs.
One subscriber said, “I woke up and I couldn’t make calls. I have not been able to reach my clients whose orders I have to fulfil, and this is really affecting me.”
“I have tried to link my SIM to my NIN with the code, but it is not going through.”
This was confirmed by many of the subscribers visiting the centers. Some of them stated that they have been attempting to contact their family members and businesses but have been unable.
And according to Adeolu Ogunbanjo, President of the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers, People were hurrying to the centers due of the ban’s commercial undertone.
He said, “Here we are, if you do not do it, you can only receive calls. They should please not suffer subscribers any further.
“The implication of this is that a lot of subscribers would be stuck, and businesses would be affected. There are also a lot of commercial undertones to this as a lot of people would lose their businesses, because they can’t call out. The economic and commercial implications on subscribers would run into billions which is not good for now. People can’t make calls but can receive them. That is not good at all.”
Because of the government’s policies, he believes that telecom and NIN service centers would experience a rise similar to that seen in 2020. He went on to say that because of racketeering, the NIN agents were likely to profit from this.
Ogunbanjo stated, “There is the case of new racketeering by NIN agents which we have been trying to avoid. Because people are under pressure, they may start to use third-party agents, who may not be thorough in their registration process.
“This would create new problems because if you put a face to a wrong name, the owner of the NIN would be held accountable if caught. NIN officials would make money out of this. Prior to the ban, immediate NIN registration used to be N10,000. Now, this is expected to skyrocket since subscribers have been boxed in.”
According to a source from one of the telecom providers, the government’s current stance will likely result in some type of income loss in the short term.
,According to the source, voice income accounts for a significant portion of telco revenue.
The source said, “This would affect our revenue stream since voice is a big part of our revenue. This is so because when you yank off some of your subscribers, this is expected.
“Some people use more than one service provider. This may prompt people to abandon some of their SIMs. But if you slice or dice it anyway, it is still revenue loss as you would be losing some of your subscribers.”
