Respite for subscribers as MTN provides solutions to SIM registration hassles

Following earlier report of customer dissatisfaction as a result of the ongoing subscriber identification module (SIM) revalidation process, MTN Nigeria has come up with possible solutions to curb the surge by streamlining the process to make it as seamless as possible.

The issue of SIM card revalidation/registration is still on the front burner as many Nigerians have complained about the repetitive process that has been ongoing for the past four years.

This is so, because the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) after giving directives to all telecoms operators to deactivate all unregistered/improperly registered SIM cards, found that MTN had the largest amount of 52 million active unregistered subscribers.

However, major operators are pleading with Nigerians for patience and are assuring finalism of registration process with the new steps and measures adopted to put an end to this repetitive process.

Ferdi Moolman, CEO, MTN Nigeria, told BusinessDay that the company had taken its lessons from the NCC fine and so, it had realised that the registration had to be redone with newer equipment if it was to be done in compliance with the regulator’s standards.

“We realised that we basically have to re-do our subscriber registration and so we went out and got completely new systems in. With our new systems, before the fingerprints or photographs are accepted, it does certain tests. We upgraded the biometrics to actually do a test prior to the data being accepted,” he said.

In the same vein, Amina Ayagbola, an executive at MTN, said: “We are now at a point where we have a better understanding, hence the acquisition of these new tools. MTN has taken extensive measures and deployed all the possible resources needed. We have created employment by hiring and training almost 10,000 Nigerian youth employed as temporary staff to assist us in this endeavour to speed up the process.

“We have more centres across the country, in addition to our current outlets. We have set up hot spot centres and temporary structures that we have tried to make as comfortable as possible for our customers by making sure that they are air-conditioned and there are refreshments.

“MTN apologised for the number of times that customers have had to re-register, giving the reason that it has such a huge base with over 60 million subscribers, promising that this will be the final registration as the company is hoping to get it right this time as a result of the huge investment being deployed.

“More importantly is the accuracy so that people don’t have to come and repeat the exercise again. We want to make sure that this time, we get it absolutely right so that when we synchronise the data with our regulator’s data, there is a complete match.

“Apart from the contract staff, all our internal staff are involved. We have bought necessary equipments for some of our employees to take home so that in their own clusters, they can also help with SIM registration.”