Concerns Over Active Unregistered SIM Cards — Daily Trust Investigation

Schematic showing levels of various data on SIM Cards - Source: Daily Trust

People who buy new SIM cards from vendors can still make calls even before they are fully registered with the network, Daily Trust investigation has revealed.

The regulatory agency, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has barred such practice explaining that unregulated use of mobile phones was   aiding robberies, kidnappings, advanced fee fraud and terrorism.

At least ₦6.2 billion had been spent by the government to register about 100 million phone users since it began in 2011.

Telecom giant, MTN Nigeria, was fined about ₦5.2bn (later reduced to US$3.4bn) last October for failing to cut off millions of subscribers with incomplete registration.
However investigations by our reporter in the last few days revealed that people who buy new SIM cards have “window” of opportunity to make calls for a few hours as soon as they are registered by the vendors.

It is also learnt that some vendors are now back in the market selling already registered SIM cards of various networks to people.

The telecoms operators are supposed to be the ones taking the phone users’ data but the vendors who sell at the open markets now do this so that a supposedly registered buyer of a SIM can make call for some hours before being cut off the network by the operators.
At Wuse market in Abuja our reporter bought a particular network’s line from a vendor who took his bio data and ‘registered’ him.

The vendor told him he could use the line for few hours pending proper registration from the network provider’s office.

Also vendors at Area 1 sell SIMs to people and get them registered for temporary use.
Our reporter bought another SIM card at this area and was able to make call with it for a few hours before he was asked by the network providers to register it or risk being barred.

A phone user, Bakare Abdulateef, told our reporter he made use of his SIM card after he purchased it from a vendor in Wuse.

Abdulateef, who said he did not know that SIM registration done by the vendors was not valid, explained that   he was shocked to get  a message from his network provider to   register the line in its offices or risk  being barred.

“But I had already made some calls and did some other things with the phone before this message came,” he told our reporter.

Another subscriber, who simply identified herself as Hajia, also said she bought a SIM   and   was able to make some calls with it before she got a message to   register it. She said: “I don’t think this is supposed to be the ideal thing. Why should the vendor register us and then the operators will also ask us to do the registration all over again?”   
This practice by the vendors is fuelling concern that the objective of the SIM registration exercise may have been defeated as criminals can actually hide under this loophole to perpetrate their nefarious acts.

Deolu Ogunbanjo, a self-styled telecoms activist, said NCC and the operators should investigate their agents and sanction them.

He believed the practice of allowing   customers to make calls with  a  registered SIM card     for few hours before it is barred  would jeopardise the lofty aim behind the SIM registration exercise.

The operators deny it

The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has denied selling pre-registered SIM cards.

Speaking to Daily Trust on phone, the ALTON Secretary, Gbolahan Awonuga, said no one could have done that because NCC had already forbidden it.

“I don’t think so. Our vendors were doing that before, but they had since stopped. I know of some operators who even sanctioned the vendors. We have completely and collectively complied with the NCC directive now,” he said.

Also, NCC’s head of media Mr Sonny Aragba-Akpore said it was not true that unregistered SIM cards were sold in the open market.

He said the commission had already warned operators of severe sanctions if any of them was found contravening the SIM registration directive.

‘Anything is possible in Nigeria’

But an NCC official who asked not to be named told our reporter that “it is not impossible this is taking place but we will investigate. You know Nigerians are very difficult people, it is not impossible to see people doing it…”

Inactive telephone lines jump to 68m as industry growth slows

However, the number of inactive telephone lines in the country has risen to 68million from 66million as harsh economic situation begins to eat deep into telecoms sector growth.
There are 217, 140, 404 connected lines but only 149, 818, 906 are active, according to the latest industry information report on the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) website.

The report shows that there are 213.1m connected GSM lines out of which only 149.1m are currently active (as at June 2016) while CDMA has 3.6m connected lines out of which only 454, 092 are in use. The fixed lines/wireless has only 170, 539 active lines out of total connected lines of 353, 201.

But experts said the decline in the sector might be temporary as activities may pick up again when the economy is fixed.

Ogunbanjo said the telecoms sector was bound to be affected like any other in the country.
He said many Nigerians had left the country in search of better life adding that this would definitely tell on the number of active lines in the country.

But he believed the sector had fared better in spite of the economic challenges.
“All in all, the sector has not performed badly even in spite of all this. It is still one of the leading contributors to the economy and it is still buoyant”, he said.

Findings by Daily Trust have shown that some Nigerians no longer buy call/data credit as often as they were used to when the economy was buoyant.

None of the telecoms operators would say if their revenue has nose-dived because of this.
An official of one of the telecoms operators told our reporter on phone yesterday that the economic situation had indeed affected their revenue.

The official who pleaded to remain anonymous, however, added that situation in the sector is still quite good even when compared to other sectors.