The Minister of Communications, Ibrahim Pantami has directed the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to ensure the registration of unregistered SIM cards in the country on or before September 25.
Pantami gave this directive on Monday, September 16, during the swearing-in of the board of the NCC.
“Last week, we officially contacted the NCC to give us details or the baseline performance of the briefing here. And I emphasized on unregistered, registered and incomplete registration of SIMs. The statistics were alarming and worrisome. The number sent to me was 9.2million with improper registration.
“I was really flabbergasted and worried because investigations revealed that 99% of crimes being committed in Nigeria, SIM card is involved. Before you can think of any benefit, the constitutional responsibility of the Executive is the protection of lives and properties.
“So, the life of one Nigeria is more important than any revenue the Federal Government may get as a result of ignoring improper registration,” Pantami affirmed.
He revealed that the NCC has been able to reduce the number of unregistered SIMs from 9.2million to 2.4million. Furthermore, Pantami revealed that this was since he last gave the directive on the SIM card registration.
“I am glad to reveal that we wrote a letter within this period of time. And they were able to reply that they have reduced this number significantly. They were able to rectify at least 6. 775million incomplete registration.
“Based on the report I have today, the incomplete registration is 2.442million.”
Furthermore, the Communications Minister affirmed the need to rein in criminal activities through proper SIM card registration.
Pantami commends NCC, says SIM card registration will curb crimes
“The reduction is 71.2%. This is commendable. Please maintain the tempo. The next directive is that we want you to work with your board so that by 25th of September we don’t want to have single incomplete SIM again.
“Contrary to the initial date, now it’s 25th December. We want the management to inform the telcos that after 25th December, when a crime is committed, and SIM is being used, we only need the number of that SIM and convey it to the regulators.
“Within an hour, we want to get details of that person. Even if that cannot solve the crime, we want to know the identity of the person who committed that crime. If we can do that, I think a lot can be achieved,” he enthused.
Meanwhile, the Commission disclosed that about 174.7 million telecom subscribers in the country spent at least N261billion on airtime in August 2019.
This figure is based on the number of subscribers in the month under review obtained from the Nigerian Communications Commission, and the $4.87 (N1490.22k) industry’s Average Revenue Per User provided by network operators.
The monthly subscriber data from NCC showed that there were 174.668m active GSM subscribers from MTN, Globacom, Airtel and 9mobile in August.
With the telecommunications companies’ average revenue per user (ARPU) amounting to $4.87 (N1490.22) per month, Nigerians spent N261bn on airtime in August.
Also, the NCC disclosed that the core revenue of telcos comes from airtime sales. Further, this income comes in for operators via voice calls, SMS, data subscriptions and value-added services.
Additionally, Nigerians purchase airtime through various platforms such as physical recharge card. Others include the virtual top-up via USSD code, subscribers’ bank accounts domiciled on mobile devices and vending on web-based platforms.
Telcos investing in network upgrade to serve the growing demand
Equally, the Commission disclosed that some subscribers purchase airtime via Automated Teller Machines (ATMs).
Meanwhile, revenue from airtime continues to rise. This is in spite of predictions by analysts to the contrary. Many experts posit that voice and messaging revenue would decline due to the proliferation of instant messaging apps.
Operators have been investing in network upgrade to meet up with their subscribers’ growing demand, the NCC disclosed.
Airtel Nigeria stated that in the last one year, it had doubled its number of broadband base stations. Specifically, the figure grew from the 5,652 it had in December 2017 to 10,369 base stations as of December 2018.
This was disclosed in its 2018 third-quarter report.
Further, the telco also reported $223m capital expenditure in Nigeria mainly for network upgrade and expansion.
Similarly, MTN upped its capital investment when it secured N200bn medium-term loan from 12 Nigerian banks. The loan was mainly to drive Internet expansion and rural telecoms devices last year.
Likewise, Glo and 9mobile have also announced billion-Naira investments to upgrade their networks early this year.
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