A civil society organization, Save the Consumers Initiative has called on the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and all service providers to extend the time contained in the new directives for subscribers to provide their National Identity Numbers (NIN) to update their SIM Registration beyond the prescribed two weeks period.
This is contained in a press statement released to the media by the Executive Director of the CSO, Ilias Aliyu. Save the Consumer Initiative states that the extension will provide ample time for subscribers who are equally the consumers of the services to comply with the new directives.
Aliyu urged all the stakeholders to take into consideration the inconveniences the two weeks period will cause over 80 million subscribers/consumers across the country especially at this period when subscribers are engaged and busy with different end of the year activities.
Mores so, the challenges of Covid-19 are still with us. With the recent rising number of cases across the country, it will be dangerous and unsafe to hoard millions of Nigerians into service providers offices or designated posts across Nigeria for purposes of updating their SIM registration.
In view of the reasons advanced, the Save the Consumer Initiative therefore made the following requests to the honourable Minister, NCC, NIMC and Telco’s in Nigeria:
1. 3-month period for subscribers to provide their NIN for their SIM registration update;
2. Provision of online platforms accessible by subscribers themselves for the update;
3. Severe punishment for any service provider that fails to register their subscribers with NIN at the point of purchasing the Sim card whenever the ban on sale of new SIM is lifted; and
4. Immediate Synchronization of data by NCC, NIMC and Telco’s.
The Executive Director also requested immediate action on the above requests as Save the Consumer Initiative has been bombarded by subscribers/consumers to engage all the stakeholders on the new directives.
