Effort by MTN Nigerian to register its customers ahead of the NCC deadline has broughht about frustration to subscribers.
Kelvin Aoma, an MTN subscriber, has registered his SIM line three times before last week when he received another call, inviting him for another registration.

The message on his phone read: “Dear customer, please visit any MTN registration point near you from December 26 with valid ID card to update your fingerprint and picture to NCC standard. Thank you.”
Aoma disregarded the invitation not only because he had just registered his line for the third time in November 2015, his 9-to-5 job did not allow him to make a dash to the customers’ centre at the appointed time.
Then he received another message the following day.
“Season greeting! We invite you to 16 Fatai Atere Way, Matori, Oshodi, Lagos from January 2 with valid ID to update your fingerprint/picture. Thanks.”

He still did not respond until the last message appeared on the screen of his phone, saying, “You have been compensated with N2000 valid for 7 days. To activate, please visit any MTN Registration outlet to update your biometrics. Dial  *559*40# to check”. It is time to obey the call, he said to himself.

Several millions of other MTN subscribers have received these SMS messages in the last two weeks, and many have heeded the call simply because of the promise of free airtime.

MTN Nigeria, in a release, said the decision to embark on massive registration is guided by the Nigerian national interest.
Observers of the industry, however, believe that the MTN’s call for the registration was prompted by the recent sanction against it by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

In 2008 Nigerian security agencies sought the assistance of NCC -the independent National Regulatory Authority for the telecommunications industry in Nigeria – in curbing crimes committed by criminals using mobile phones.
After a series of deliberation among the stakeholders, which included NCC, office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) and the country’s telecom operators, a registration programme was launched in May 2010 but MTN Nigeria failed to register millions of its subscribers.

According to NCC, about 38.78 million lines belonging to the four telecom firms in the country were either unregistered or improperly registered as at August 18, 2015.  About 10.7 million have been blocked, and the owners of such lines have been advised to regularise their details before they could use the lines.
NCC also issued directive to all telecom firms to register all subscribers by January 2012, and reminded them of SIM card registration code, section 19 to 21 that prescribes N200, 000 per defective SIM found on any network.

One of the customers who identified himself as Augustine Ajufo, 34, blamed both NCC and MTN for handling the registration issue with “less seriousness”
“In other countries, subscribers are made to register their SIM card before they can use it. This exercise should have been carried out by MTN about 15 years ago when they started in Nigeria. And NCCC should have insisted that such procedure is followed,” he said.
In an unprecedented wielding of its regulatory power, NCC last October fined MTN a sum of N1.04 trillion ($5.2 billion) for failing to deactivate unregistered SIM cards. The fine was later reduced to 780 billion ($3.4 billion).
The sanction therefore prompted the South African company, which controls about 43 percent of the Nigeria telecom market share with 62.5 million subscribers, to commence a mass registration of its subscribers.
And owing to the offer of free airtime by the telecom giant, many subscribers have besieged the customers’ centres, especially in Lagos where the firm has 62 customers’ centres.

At Matori customers centre, about 50 customers were found seated outside on Thursday last week. Another twenty customers crowded a small office space inside. The customers were worried that the registration would soon close at 5pm. But an official assured them that the hour would be extended.  Not many were persuaded because the registration process was slow. It took an average of 10 minutes to complete a registration.

A female employee of the MTN blamed the delay on poor Internet network.
Some of the subscribers who spoke with The Guardian said they were at the registration centre for the third time while some are there for the sixth times.

“My line has been barred twice. And they asked me to send messages from 791 to 799, which I did. They later sent another messages to me, asking me to come here to register. What registration is that,” Ajufo asked.
Frank who came for his own registration expressed his frustration this way. “I am very disappointed by the way MTN handles this registration exercise. See people everywhere because we want to register.”
A middle-age Indian man was very furious when he was asked to present a means of identification before he could register his line. He said he had stayed for hours before it got to his turn only to be told that he could not register until he produced his identity card.

At Sango Ota customer centre, Richard, 28, said the centre has been heavily congested in the past few days, “but it is better today because the number is lesser.”

Notwithstanding, the young man said he was no longer going to “stress” himself today. “I have enough of this frustration, I will port to another line. That makes it simple for me.”
Mr. Solomon Odubela who registered at Ikotun said he had to pay N200 to do it at a registration point near MTN office.  “It is faster there, but you have to pay the boys there.” According to him, some customers had told him that they spent the whole day at the MTN office the previous day. Thus, he preferred to pay N200 than to spend the whole day on the queue.
An MTN staffer at Ikotun customer centre who objected to speak on record because he was not authorised to do so said the turnout is large everyday since last week because Alimosho area where Ikotun is located is densely populated.

“But we are making good effort to control the crowd by giving customers tally number.”
But some customers compromise the system by selling their number between N100 and N500 depending on the length of the queue and the closeness of the number to the point of registration. A customer such as Madam Adebisi, 35, bought her serial number at a price she refused to disclose. She said it was necessary for her to do so because some come as early as 2:30 am to take position. “I came here at 2:42am and my serial number was 41,” a customer at Sango MTN branch office said.
At Akowonjo, some of the customers who already had numbers expressed their wish to visit other centres for their registration but an MTN official on duty dissuaded them from doing so.

“It is better for you to remain here since you already have a number. You may be disappointed when you get to another centre and find out there are more people there,” the MTN worker told them.
An angry customer advised MTN to put their house in order. “You are not the only service provider we have in Nigeria, though, you came first and people embrace you and because you are the first in the country that is why people still stay despite their poor treatment and if this continues, you will lose more customers,” he told the MTN official.
The General Manager, Consumer Marketing, MTN Nigeria, Richard Iweanoge, has recently assured subscribers of quicker registration process.

He said the organization management has extended opening and closing hours of most of the outlets from 7am to 10pm every day of the week as well as on Saturdays and Sundays, dedicating 95 per cent of resources at  outlets to facilitate the SIM registration process for customers. MTN employees in other business areas have also been deployed to assist with SIM revalidation in our bid to reduce the long queues and large numbers of customers at our service points nationwide.
“With the extensive steps taken, we assure our subscribers that we are working round the clock to ensure that their SIM registration details are captured without undue delay,” he said.

Meanwhile, at Alakija customers’ centre, Lagos, subscribers said the registration has become faster.
Azubike Denis said it took him less than 3 minutes to complete the process, same for Mrs. Adaugo Uzoamaka 33 and Mr. Olufowobi Samuel.

Rachel Christopher who did her registration last week at Egbeda area also confirmed that the process was faster when she visited the customers’ centre.

A staff of Abelinis, an agency contracted by MTN to render some service, Noah Oni advised subscribers to be patient, saying the order for mass registration is from NCC, and not from MTN.