The ongoing deactivation and revalidation of subscriber identity modules (SIMs) have brought untold hardship to telecoms subscribers across the country. So much money has been spent by the Federal Government and the telcos to conduct the exercise. Subscribers say this development reflects the contempt and disrespect the operators have for the customers, LUCAS AJANAKU, OLATUNDE ODEBIYI, TOLU LAWANI and MODUPE ELEGUSHI report.
She arrived at the experience centre of her mobile network operator (MNO) in company of her husband who cuddled their baby. When she saw the huge crowd that was waiting at the gate, shouting at the gate men, she became crest-fallen.
The 35-year-old pregnant woman who introduced herself simply as Chinyere, said she was shocked when she discovered that her phone and that of her husband could neither receive nor make calls. She complained to one of her neighbours and was advised to visit the nearest office of her MNO to complain.
She said: “I was shocked when I could neither make nor receive calls on my phone. When I told my husband, he too complained about having similar experience. We thought it was one of those gimmicks they resort to each time they have issues with their network. Our neighbour later advised us to go to the office of our service providers. That is why we are here now. The baby with my husband is about a year and six months old. See my husband waiting under the tree because of the sun. “With the mammoth crowd here today, I do not know when we are going to leave this place. It is embarrassing that this is happening to us five years after using these lines.”
Though Vivian Ekene, a secondary school teacher, lives and works in Lagos, she got her subscriber identification module (SIM) registered in far away Nekede, Imo State. According to her, she was on vacation and her hosts told her there was a registration centre nearby. She took advantage of the proximity of the centre to where she was staying to do the registration. According to her, she got an acknowledgement that her SIM had been successfully registered. Now, her SIM is one of the over 10 million lines blocked on the order of the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) over deficiency in the registration process. “This is rude. How can they just deactivate my line without the courtesy of a text message? This shows how disrespectful they are to their customers,” she said.
Kunle Lanrewaju, a civil servant, got his SIM registered in his office. He had taken advantage of a mobile SIM registration agent to do his long time ago. He later received a message from his service provider that his SIM registration failed.He promptly walked into one of the customer care centres and got the SIM registered again. Today, his line has been deactivated. “If I had been told earlier, I would have done the correction but it’s late. Look at the crowd. Very bad,” he lamented.
These are just a few subscribers that have been subjected to harrowing experience over the last one week in the country.
How it started
A SIM is a card issued by mobile phone operators which provides the individual user with the appropriate number recognised by that network. A subscriber inserts the card into his or her mobile phone to access the mobile phone network.
Since the launch of the global system for mobile communication (GSM) services in the country in 2001, SIM cards were offered to subscribers without the requirement to provide proper identification by the users.
Sometime in early 2008, security agencies approached the NCC to assist in resolving crimes perpetrated through the use of phones which were not traceable to the phone users because they were not registered as users.
Consequently, the commission held a consultative forum involving various telecoms operators, consumer groups, security agencies, telecoms associations, dealers, the Nigerian Identity Management Commission (NIMC), National Population Commission (NPC), National Census Commission, the media and a host of others.
All the participants agreed that it is appropriate and necessary to register phone users in the country. Another committee was then set up to further look at the details of the implementation of the registration programme and submit its recommendations to the NCC.
Upon reviewing the recommendations of the committee, the Board of the NCC approved the registration of all phone subscribers in the country.
This began on March 28, 2011, when the official flag-off of the registration of all SIM cards was performed by for Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, in Abuja.
The registration of existing SIM cards officially ended in January 2012. However, MNOs continued to register new SIM cards.
On completion of the validation, harmonisation and scrubbing of the records of all registered SIM cards, operators will be authorised to disconnect unregistered SIM cards from the networks. NCC requested for and got budgetary approval of a whopping N6.2billion to register existing operators.
NCC’s ultimatum
The NCC said it is worried by the seemingly intractable security situation in the country, it handed down a seven-day ultimatum to GSM and other network providers to deactivate all pre-registered SIM cards or face sanctions.
It said the action was the fallout of a meeting between Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), Department of State Service (DSS), MNOs and NCC. The meeting which took place at the NCC boardroom in Abuja, took into cognisance crimes committed against members of the public either by kidnappers, terrorists, robbers and threats to lives, through the use of such unregistered SIM cards across all the networks. Operators were however told to notify such subscribers before deactivation of their SIM cards.
At the meeting were the representatives of the NSA, Group Captain, Ibikunle Daramola, DSS, Mr. Godwin Ometu, the immediate past NCC Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), Dr Eugene Juwah Executive Commissioner, Technical Services, Engr. Ubale Maska and representatives of MTN, Globacom, Etisalat, Visafone , Airtel and others.
NCC Director, Public Affairs, Mr. Tony Ojobo said the Commission and all operators are to embark on vigorous public enlightenment on the need/ desirability for subscribers to register their SIMs, as well as the dangers of selling /buying pre-registered SIMs.
The NCC lamented that till date more than 120 million SIM cards have been registered and transmitted to the Central Database by the operators, adding that validation exercise revealed a preponderance of unreliable data in terms of incomplete and/ or inaccurate demographic and / or biometric data.
The issues relating to unreliability of data essentially border on the operators’ failure to ensure compliance with the formats and specifications that were jointly developed and agreed by the NCC and the operators before the commencement of the exercise in 2011.
It was also noted that as at September last year, about 45 per cent of the total number of registered SIMs, at that time, were deemed invalid for reasons of invalid portrait image only, invalid fingerprints only, invalid portrait image and fingerprints, and incorrect/ inaccurate demographic data (name, address and others).
Ojobo said the invalid records were returned to the operators in September last year for correction, adding that less than 30 per cent of the invalid records have been resubmitted.
These resolutions were part of the ongoing efforts by government to nip in the bud the incessant occurrences of threats via telecommunications networks and the danger they portend for psyche of the citizenry.
Credibility of exercise
Over the years, SIM registration has come under criticism by security experts and other stakeholders in the IT industry.
An official of the Directorate of State Security Service (DSS) who spoke on the sideline during a cyber security forum organised by ONSA in Lagos dismissed the exercise as a charade. He said with the level of breach of the guidelines set by stakeholders on SIM registration, data collated could not be reliable.
Similarly, the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) faulted the exercise, arguing that it cannot produce a reliable data for the country.
Its Director General/Chief Executive Officer, Chris Onyemenam, said the exercise is currently marred by a lot of irregularities stemming from the fact that NCC abandoned the roadmap NIMC had prepared for its implementation.
“Based on what we did and most of the people who did it are (still around) we worked on the SIM registration project; it was designed by the NIMC. We followed the standard that we felt, if they adopt and implement, the data will meet our own standard and our own standard are the benchmarked on the basis of international standard for such identity data base.
“The moment we stopped being part of the SIM card registration project, rather than (settle for) 10 finger prints, they settled for something less and rather than the number of demographic data we recommended, they settled for something less. Obviously, it is no longer a perfect feat. Secondly, the background when you are doing the face shot capture, some of us have been to the high commission for visa, you know they tell you the type of background and the size of the passport photograph. There is a reason for that,” he said.
According to him, there were locations where all the kiosk attendant did was just to ask the person willing to register SIM to stand well regardless of what the background was and just do the face capture.
He said the practice does not meet international requirement. “That is just an ordinary passport photograph. If you want to convert it into something that can be used to conduct face recognition it is useless. They just asked me to stand and I did and they took my shot in their office. The place was not well lit and I shook my head that this is not what we recommended. There were certain parameters for all these,” he said.
MTN apologises
MTN apologised to its customers over the noticeable congestion in its service outlets across the country as a result of ongoing SIM validation exercise.
In a statement signed by its Corporate Services Executive, Akinwale Goodluck, the company is doing everything possible to ameliorate the conditions at the service centres. “We wish to apologise to all our customers who are experiencing difficulty with the ongoing SIM registration/revalidation exercise. Affected customers can revalidate their registration details at all MTN sales outlets including the nearest agent and dealer shops. We appeal for calm as customers visit our various outlets. We are committed to ensuring that all affected subscribers complete the process as directed by the NCC. It is for this reason that we have increased the number of staff handling SIM registration/validation across all our channels. We have also mandated all our registration outlets to remain open till 8pm every day until further notice.”
According to Goodluck, the decision to deactivate all lines with invalid or incomplete subscriber registration details was in compliance with the NCC directive. “It is to enable us provide maximum support to government in achieving the national interest objectives of the exercise,” he said.
While reiterating that SIM registration is free, he urged all MTN customers in their interactions with MTN Channel Partners and agents, to be assured that in full compliance with NCC regulations, every element of the registration will be completed at once; and to report any fraudulent activity to the MTN manager in charge at the centres.
Airtel extends operation hours
Airtel said its customers that are yet to update their records as well as register their SIM cards in line with the directives of the NCC, have been offered another window of opportunity to do so. It announced an extension of its operation hours in all its showrooms and customer touch points across the country.
According to Airtel, all showrooms across the country have extended their daily operations by two hours every day of the week, Monday to Sunday, in a strategic move to accommodate the recent influx of customers who are desirous of updating their records in line with the Know Your Customer registration exercise.
Airtel had noted that “following the directive from Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to ensure that all Customers on our network, who are yet to fully complete their SIM registration requirements, are barred from using their lines, we wish to inform you that the barring of non-compliant lines has commenced on the Airtel Network.
“If you have been barred or received a message that you will be barred as a result of this process, we appeal to you to kindly reactivate your line or update your records accordingly to continue enjoying our quality services. Please, visit any of our Airtel Express Shops or KYC registration centres across the country to update your Registration details.
“For customers who have duly completed the SIM registration requirements as stipulated by the NCC, please be assured that your lines will continue to remain functional and your services will not be interrupted.
“We wish to assure everyone that Airtel is committed to providing top of the class telecommunication experience.
‘We thought it was one of those gimmicks they resort to each time they have issues with their network. Our neighbour later advised us to go to the office of our service providers. That is why we are here now. The baby with my husband is about a year and six months old. See my husband waiting under the tree because of the sun. With the mammoth crowd here today, I do not know when we are going to leave this place’
