Subscribers besiege offices over biometric update, demand more registration units
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THOUSANDS of MTN Nigeria subscribers, who have frequented the Ondo State head office of the service provider company in Akure, have lamented the herculean stress associated with the registration of their Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards.

A crowd of people yesterday thronged the head office, along Oba Adesida Road, expressing their displeasure over the attendant rigour of the exercise in two other designated points for such a purpose in the metropolis.

The situation was worsened by the recent action of the Ondo State Board of Internal Revenue (OSBIR), who got an authorisation from the court to sanction its tax defaulters, an enforcement the agency carried out on December 20, 2015.

In a related development, many customers of the telecommunications firm were also seen yesterday at the MTN office in Akowonjo, Alimosho Local Council of Lagos, trying to update their SIM registration, with some of the customers complaining bitterly of the repeated update of their SIM cards.

One of the distressed customers, Shola Ogunwale, said: “This SIM registration update is a serious problem to me because I just retrieved my line not long ago. Was it that they did not update my data then? Now I will have to wait till it gets to my turn because my number is 300.

When on earth will it ever get to my turn today?”

However, the situation was quite different at Amen Centre, Abesan Estate, Ipaja. Though people turned out in large numbers, each customer spent less than 15 minutes, as there were many agents who attended to them.

Some other customers said they were out to update their registration because of the compensation attached to it. One lady said: “I had already made up my mind not to bother about this SIM update again but I am here to do it because of the N10,000 compensation I will get once I update my biometrics. With that money I can call any network in Nigeria. They had compensated me before so I know it is real.”

Towards the end of last year, MTN sent out messages to their subscribers to either complete their SIM registration or update their biometric data at their nearest office. But in Ondo State, the firm’s state office, Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) and mast sites located all over the state are shut down for defaults in the payment of N458,585,743.12, unremitted total tax liabilities for the years 2010-2013.

One of the subscribers, Dele Akinle, described the MTN biometric update and SIM registration as “a mess of an exercise. You cannot invite 1,000 people and make provisions for 10 people. In Akure town, there should be nothing less than 30-40 units at strategic places, where people can carry out their registration,” he said.

An elderly woman, who merely identified herself as Bolanle, told The Guardian that she had been going to the MTN office daily in the last four days, lamenting that the other two points where she could register some metres away from the sealed office, were always overcrowded with overzealous customers, who often resorted to violence to obtain their registration.

An overzealous customer said the reason for the surging crowd “ is a text message he received on his mobile phone, which reads: “You have been compensated with N20,000 valid for seven days. To activate, please visit any MTN registration outlet to update your biometrics. Dial *559*40# to check.”

A staffer of the service provider, who was attending to the customers, declined to speak with The Guardian, insisting that he was not authorized to do so. He, however, admitted that they have incurred so much loss since their office was sealed by OSBIR 16 days ago.

All efforts to contact the Public Relations Officer of MTN, Funsho Aina, to comment on this proved abortive, but a source at one of the registration points, said the hassles over the exercise is not worth it, as subscribers can update their biometric data by sending “YES” to “799”. According to him, the text prompt will allow the service provider access their details from their Bank Verification Number (BVN).