Victor EzejaNational president, National Association of Telecom Subscribers (NATCOM), Chief Adeolu Ogunbajo has said the issue of having active SIM lines yet to be linked with subscribers’ National Identity Number is due to poor sensitisation of the citizens especially those in rural areas on the need for the exercise.
He said this is coupled with system hitches which on several occasions frustrated people who made attempts to do so.
Chief Ogunbajo made the assertion at Channels TV SunriseDaily, Talk Show on Wednesday morning.
He said many in the rural areas were not adequately informed about the importance of linking SIM lines with their NINs.
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The Federal Government had through the National Communication Commission (NCC) ordered telecommunication operators to block outgoing calls from Subscriber Identification Module lines yet to be linked with NIN, with effect from Monday April 4, 2022.
Minister of communication and digital economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, had said that the NIN-SIM linkage policy was initiated by the Federal Government to ensure that the identity of all who live in Nigeria either as citizens or legal residents is known both for security and socioeconomic planning purposes.
According to statistics from NCC, about 125 million subscribers have linked their SIMs to their NIN, while 72.8 million subscribers have not since the exercise started in December 2020.
The NATCOM president expressed concern that many subscribers especially in rural areas were yet to be linked, arguing that it was still premature to block unlinked lines by telecom operators.
He stated that telecom operators were unable to attend to as many subscribers as possible in a day at their centres due to procedure for both creating the NIN and linking, coupled with techinical hitches encountered at different times.
Ogunbajo also alleged that some subscribers were compelled at some centres to pay certain amount of money by agents before they could be attended to.
Responding, the chairman, Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, said the Federal Government gave enough time of about 14 months for subscribers to link their NIN with their SIMs, but many chose not to respond on time to the directive even with repeated extension of deadlines for the linkage granted by the Federal Government.
He insisted that there was enough time for people to link their lines, but they chose not, adding that with the suspension placed, many are now coming out, putting pressure at their service centres.
“We have been on the exercise for 24 months now, but unfortunately many people didn’t respond to the call to link their SIM with their NIN and so, we are where we are, but certainly, the last 24 hours has witnessed enormous pressure at the various operating centres of members of our association,” ALTON president stated.
Adebayo said both the telecoms companies and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) made efforts to see that subscribers who responded were linked. He explained that at some point when NIMC became unable to register all subscribers, it gave concessions to agents and network operators to enrol people who do not have NIN to enable them link their lines.
Commenting on the issue of technical hitches and delays raised by Ogunbanjo, the ALTON president said the challenge mostly emanated from having NIMC generate NIN for subscriber to facilitate the back-end integration.
On what happens to blocked lines, Adebayo said ones the subscribers link their NIN at experience centres, restrictions on their lines would be removed and services restored to them.
He urged citizens to cooperate with the Telcos by abiding with the laid down procedure for the NIN-SIM linkage.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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