• MTN seeks understanding of customers
MINISTER of Communications, Adebayo Shittu yesterday warned telecommunications operators against subjecting subscribers to hardship and humiliating treatments at Subscribers Identification Module (SIM) cards re-registration centres across the country.
Shittu, in a statement through his Special Assistant on Media, Victor Oluwadamilare, decried the way and manner Nigerians, especially women are being treated by the way telecommunications companies, in their bid to comply with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) directive for the registration of all SIMs in use.
“The minister’s office had been inundated with several complaints from Nigerians, particularly women in veil, the way they were being treated, sometimes humiliated by the workers of the telecommunications’ companies nationwide,” the statement reads.
Some of the complaints, according to Shittu include that, “women in purdah dresses were requested to remove their veils in the public, despite the request by such women that a place should be provided out of public glare for only female officials to attend to them, adding that all entreaties failed but rather they were allegedly accused of being Boko Haram agents and they were refused registration after several altercation that ensued in some of the registrations centres.
Shittu, who frowned at the development, urged the telecommunications’ companies involved to accord maximum respect to Nigerians from all walks of life, including women by respecting their feminine nature and religious dispositions.
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer and Corporate Service Executive of MTN Nigeria, Ferdi Moolman and Aminat Oyagbola respectively, appealed to affected subscribers in the on-going re-registration SIM cards. They stressed that the whole process would end in happiness for both the subscribers and the operator and the industry as a whole.
Moolman said it has become expedient that they ensure the telecommunications firm has a solid database of its subscribers because of the next phase of the telecommunications revolution, especially in the area of broadband provisioning.
Oyagbola corroborated the CEO’s claim by saying a harmonised database was needed to be able to offer world-class services.
Besides, Oyagbola, who said MTN actually brought in new systems, hires about 10,000 contract staff for the re-registration process, and opened new centres to accommodate more affected subscribers, added that the firm was committed to supporting the government in building a national database.
