FG may ban sale of SIM cards to force service quality

The Federal Govern¬ment may tempo¬rarily ban mobile phone companies from selling new SIM cards in order to force greater investment in net¬work quality by putting the brakes on soaring customer numbers, reports Bloomberg.

“We’re not satisfied at all” with telecommunica¬tions service, communica¬tion technology minister, Omobola Johnson, said in an interview on Monday at a Renaissance Capital invest¬ment conference in Lagos. “Fines are just a slap on the wrist. We need to change behaviour.”

A ban on signing new customers may force the companies to focus on im¬proving infrastructure and quality of service for existing phone users, Johnson said.

Nigeria’s telecommuni¬cations regulator has re¬peatedly fined companies including Johannesburg-based market leader MTN Group Ltd. (MTN) and Emir¬ates Telecommunications Corp. (ETISALAT), or Etisalat, for failing to meet quality standards and improve con-nections in the country.

“We take customer ex¬perience very seriously and have worked assiduously over the last 18 months to ensure we not only meet but surpass set quality of service measures,” Chin¬eze Amanfo, a Lagos-based spokeswoman for Etisalat, said by e-mail on Tuesday.

“There are challenges that make this difficult in certain parts of the country where access or damage to tel¬ecommunications facilities remain a challenge.”

Etisalat, the fourth-largest carrier in the country, said its Nigerian unit secured a $1.2 billion loan for expan¬sion last year. Funmi Omog¬benigun, a spokeswoman for MTN Nigeria, said she couldn’t immediately com¬ment when contacted by phone on Monday. Charles Ikoabasi, a spokesman for Globacom, and Bharti Airtel Ltd. Nigeria chief executive of¬ficer, Segun Ogunsanya, didn’t immediately reply to e-mailed requests for comment.

Nigeria had 156 million mobile-phone subscriptions as of October 2013, accord¬ing to the Nigerian Com¬munications Commission (NCC). With many subscrib¬ers owning more than one phone, user numbers will probably grow to more than 200 million in 2017, London-based research company Informa Telecoms & Media estimates. The population is about 170 million.

MTN said in April it se¬cured a $3 billion loan to invest in the country, while Globacom Ltd., the No. 2 carrier, is spending $1.25 bil¬lion to upgrade and expand its network. Nigeria’s four biggest phone companies, including MTN and Etisalat, have cited a lack of power and sabotage as reasons for the poor service.