Nigerian Telcos spends 46.1 Billion Naira on Sim Registration, Deactivate 10.7 Million SIM Cards

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the four operators of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), spent about N46.1 billion on SIM card registration from 2010 to 2015, THISDAY investigation has revealed.

The breakdown of the figure showed that while NCC spent N6.1 billion, the four GSM operators, MTN, Globacom, Airtel and Etisalat, collectively spent N40 billion, with each operator spending about N10 billion.

As at 2013, MTN said it spent N5 billion on SIM card registration, but explained that the amount rose to over N10 billion in the last few weeks, since the registration exercise is ongoing. 

The other three GSM operators, also said they had so far spent huge amount ofmoney, running into billions of naira on SIM card registration, but they are yet to release the exact amount spent so farNigerian Telcos have deactivated about 10.7 million SIM cards and this has led to affected customers picketing telcos’ customer centers across the country, Guardian reports.

The SIM cards were barred after the Nigerian Communications Commission, the Nigerian telecoms industry regulator, gave carriers a seven-day ultimatum to deactivate pre-registered SIM cards and those with poor biometric capturing from their networks.The report by Guardian reveals that a number of aggrieved customers interviewed indicated that they were duly registered and were surprised when they discovered their SIM cards had been barred.

Since telcos began the biometric capturing of customers in 2011, the NCC revealed in September 2014 that about 45% of registered SIMs were improperly registered.Collectively, the NCC and the four telecommunications operators in Nigeria, Etisalat, MTN, GLO and Airtel have spent about N46.1 billion on SIM card registration from 2010 to 2015.