Many telecommunication subscribers were left stranded yesterday after telecom companies barred their lines from making calls following a directive from the Federal Government through the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
A visit to the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) in Ikeja, Lagos and some telecommunications companies customer service centers showed that many subscribers flooded the service centres to rectify issues with their linkage or to link their NIN to their SIMs.
At one of the customer care centres in Festac town, Lagos, representatives of the company were seen helping subscribers link their SIMs and solve whatever issues they have with their linkage.
Mrs. Julia Mmaduabuchi, one of the subscribers, told newsmen that she woke up to notice her line stopped working. “I woke up and I couldn’t make calls, I tried to link my NIN to my SIM but I couldn’t. That is why I came, but I have rectified the problem with the help of the customer care representative”, she said.
Other subscribers also corroborated her. According to some of them, they have been trying to make call could not.
The NC, last December, handed a directive to telecommunications operators; Globacom, MTN, Airtel and 9Mobile to ban SIMs not linked to owners’ NINs on their networks by February 28.
The linkage of the NIN to SIM is a policy by the Federal Government through the NCC to improve the integrity and transparency of the SIM registration process and consolidate the achievement of the exercise.
The linking Involves validating the NIN with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and matching the subscriber’s NIN records with the SIM registration information to ensure proper subscriber identification.
Speaking to an authoritative source in one of the telecommunications companies on whether they have commenced disconnection as NCC directed, she said the NCC is the regulator and so, they must obey its directives. Hear hear, “Of course, we have started disconnection as NCC directed. If you come here now, you will see the crowd here. It is too much. Customers whose lines were disconnected stormed our offices today to link their line or correct issues with the linking they have done before. We are doing our best to help them and disconnection is also ongoing as we speak”.
On the report on a federal high court injunction in Lagos mandating telcos to desist from disconnection of subscribers, she said, “We just read of that in the news but we were not served any paper in that regard and since NCC did not issue any contrary directive as against the earlier one issued, we don’t have any option than to obey our regulator”.
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