NATCOMs appeals as telcos become overwhelmed
AS expected, barred telephone subscribers have besieged various outlets of telecoms operators with the hope of getting their lines unbarred.
Defying the lack of vehicles on the road due to another challenge of fuel crises, as early as 7am, Monday, subscribers were seen converged at several outlets of telecoms operators in Lagos and other parts of the country.
The Guardian met large crowds at MTN offices at Osolo Way and Fatai Atere Way. The same situation was noticed at Glo office along Airport Road, Ikeja. 9mobile office at Okota/Cele Express has not been spared as well.
A subscriber at MTN office, Bilikis Adekunle, said she woke up yesterday (Sunday) to discover that she has been barred. “I remembered that I linked the SIM to NIN in March, to be barred again baffled me. What happened to the linkage I did before. You can see the crowd here. I came here as early as 7:30am and I still met over 40 people on ground. Something urgent needs to be done; we cannot go through this harrowing experience again.”
At Glo office, Emeka Adigwe complained that the link provided by the telecoms firm to re-link appeared not working. “I have tried it severally before coming here this morning, but it didn’t work. So many things are wrong with the process. How many times are we going to do this exercise? I am just worried about Nigeria…..simple thing we cannot get it right!”
An official of 9mobile, who pleaded anonymity, said the process is becoming overwhelming. “From last Thursday till this morning, we have attended to thousands of subscribers, who came to link and unbar their telephone lines. The most painful thing is that customers have been mandated to do this long before now, but in a typical Nigerian manner, we wait for the last minute.
“9mobile has reached out to affected subscribers through calls and bulk messages since the beginning of July, especially for the last phase of the exercise, telephone users didn’t show up until now.”
As it is, the telcos are in the race to meet the July 31, 2024, deadline set by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to bar all subscribers whose NINs have not been verified.
Despite the extension of the deadline from the initial April 15, 2024, to July 31, the latest actions by MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and 9mobile, indicate that many subscribers still have irregularities with their NIN-SIM link.
Recall that in December 2023, the NCC directed all telecommunications operators in to undertake full network barring of all SIMs that have failed to submit their National Identity Numbers (NIN) on or before 28 February 2024.
Likewise, customers that have submitted their NINs, but remain unverified were to be barred on 15 April 2024. This deadline was, however, shifted to July 31, 2024. Further, guidelines were issued whereby no customer can have more than four active SIMs and all such excess SIMs must be barred by March 29, 2024.
This directive is part of the ongoing Federal Government NIN-SIM harmonization exercise requiring all subscribers to provide valid NIN information to update SIM registration records.
Speaking on the issue, the National President, National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMs) Adeolu Ogunbanjo, said that the barring of lines was not done to frustrate anybody or group.
Ogunbanjo said that there was a recent announcement on the issue, but many subscribers did not take heed to it.
“The number of NIN that is not properly done is alarming, and when you ask the affected persons, they will say I went to a kiosk somewhere or something similar to do my NIN registration.
“Many do not use their real names, some go to fake centres to do their NIN registration. The bottom line is that proper registration was not done. I implore everybody to do the needful and go to recognised NIN centres,” he said.
