By Prince Osuagwu

If you are reading this and are yet to register your phone line(s), it may just be too late, because barring any extension, the SIM card registration exercise embarked upon by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, in conjunction with all the telecom operators in Nigeria, ends today.

For the past six months, the industry regulator (NCC), has embarked on a massive campaign, sensitizing telephone subscribers on the need to register their phones to enable a proper record of phone subscribers in the country, effective monitoring of telecommunications activities and perhaps cut down on phone-related crimes.

The regulator also made it clear that after a the six-month period which expires today, those who did not register their lines stood the risk of losing them by deactivation.

Now, the panic, tension and anxiety as the exercise winds down are only better imagined. In fact the whole exercise, from the beginning has been shrouded in intrigues, which also reflects the growing nature of Nigerian telecom industry.

How it all began

In the wake of unending security challenges facing the country, it became expedient that a lot of measures needed to be taken. In 2009, the then Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Engr Ernest Ndukwe opted for SIM registration as one of the measures.

SIM registration is a standard practice in almost all established economies of the world for its ability to check phone related crimes and in Nigeria, phone related crimes including death threats via text messages and kidnappings, were becoming common.

A meeting between the regulator, operators and other stakeholders were held where the government mandated the operators to start registering their subscribers.

However it was learnt that at the meeting the operators expressed inability to do a good job of that in less than three years, prompting the agreement that the operators should register new entrants while the regulator finds way of registering existing subscribers.

The decision according to participants at the meeting was that this would make it easier and faster since the country could not afford a delay in the wake of continued growth of phone related crimes.

However there were twist and turns in that agreement as the operators later went on a registration spree of both the new and old subscribers. The action infuriated the regulator and caused the first intrigue of the sim registration exercise.

Second intrigue of the exercise came when the regulator under the current EVC, Dr Eugene Juwah presented a budget of N6.1 billion for the exercise.

The budget caused quite a rumpus at the National Assembly and the entire telecom sector and created different camps that engulfed themselves in protracted argument of whether the bill was justified or not.

Eventually, on February 14, 2011, the exercise began.

How operators jazzed up the campaign

As is common with change, subscribers initially were reluctant to adapt to the new directive and it became clear that something needed to lure their attraction to the exercise. The operators introduced different packages.

Globacom for instance offered reward packages including a guaranteed 30 minutes free airtime (10) minutes per month for 3 months, all expense-paid trip to Manchester or Dubai to 60 registered customers (20 per month for 3 months) and N20,000 airtime to 300 lucky winners(100 per month for 3 months).

Meanwhile the company has made over 17 millionaires in the N1m category of the promo.

Etisalat Nigeria introduced 9ja Free Credit Promo, designed to reward new and existing subscribers who register or have registered their SIM cards. The promo gives a 30 per cent bonus credit to call any network.

With consistent text messages ardio jingles and TV commercials, Airtel has also been luring its subscribers to register their SIM cards and win a gift. Other operators like Visafone opted for the direct marketing strategy; road shows became a daily sight, often helping worsen the chaotic traffic in many urban centres.

However, it was MTN Nigeria that shook the industry with its latest billionaire promo tagged the BIG Reward programme.

Improved registration turn-out

The promo required subscribers to simply register their SIM cards, credit their phones and choose any of the operators’ repackaged tariff plans and the possibility of winning up to 10 million Naira cash prize was real.

Confirming improved turnout of customers at the SIM registration centres since the launch of the Big Reward, MTN General Manager, Consumer Marketing, Kola Oyeyemi, said, “that is the overriding objective of the BIG Reward programme; getting subscribers to register so that we can have a credible database of telephone users for our country. When we have such a database, government can better plan the economy and the people will be the better for it.”

ALTON calls for extension

Eventually, the operators, through the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators in Nigeria, ALTON may have felt the pulse of the people and at the weekend, called for extension of the exercise.

Chairman of the association, Engr Gbenga Adebayo while briefing newsmen on why the association is seeking an extension, said that the exercise which commenced since February this year, could only successfully register a little over 50 percent of the total subscribers in the country.

He said the extension became necessary in order to prevent a widespread panic and insecurity that will most likely occur if the estimated 50 percent of subscribers that are not yet registered are suddenly cut off.

Adebayo admitted that the exercise encountered several challenges which had a significant impact on the outcome so far. He listed some of them to include general logistics challenges like the inability of SIM registrations agents to access certain parts of the country, especially the hinterland and rural areas, the conduct of 2011 general elections in most parts of the country, the post elections violence, torrential rainfall and resultant devastating flooding in various parts of the country.

Others are the general lull in activities resulting from Christian Lent and Moslem Ramadan during which a period of fasting and religious reflection was observed by millions of Nigerians, the heightened threats to security such as the spate of bombings across the country, ongoing violence and threat to lives in certain parts of the country and the general insecurity in many parts.

Challenges made 100% success hard

He said these challenges have made it impossible to achieve a 100 percent success rate within the period stipulated by the Federal Government.

According to him, “even without these challenges, the deadline of the 28th of September 2011 is too short for a project as enormous as the SIM registration in a country with over 90 million telecoms subscribers.

In many other countries where the same exercise has been done, significant time was given to enable operators effectively conclude the exercise.

For example, Malaysia with a total population of 27.5 million people took a total of 24 months to conclude the SIM registration exercise; while South Africa, with a population of about 50 million, took 18 months to register all subscribers.

Other countries like Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Algeria and Ghana had their registrations exercises extended. Yet most of these countries have significantly lower population sizes and smaller landmasses than Nigeria

“As the September 28 deadline for the conclusion of the SIM registration exercise draws closer, ALTON wishes to call on the Federal Government and the NCC to kindly extend the deadline for the exercise to enable subscribers who are not registered to do so” he pleaded.