MTN Nigeria, over the weekend, said that the on-going Subscribers Identification Model (SIM) re-registration/re-validation exercise is schedule for all the over 60 million users on its network in Nigeria.
To this end, the network said that it has invested on new set of equipment to continue the re-registration exercise in compliance with the required international standard set by NCC.
This implies that all customers on the subscriber log of MTN in Nigeria will be re-registered or invited for data verification and re-validation for profile authenticity.
The re-registration exercise is design in batches MTN Nigeria said stating that another sets of subscribers will soon be invited for the exercise.
MTN said that over 10,000 Nigerians were recruited and have thoroughly trained for the period of six months in the bid to achieve the CIA indicator cum FBI standard sets by the industry regulator for the SIM registration exercise.
Executives of MTN indicated that over 25% of its Nigeria subscribers have been captured in the first batch of this exercise with 100% success recorded.
Though Subscribers expected a more seamless arrangement with less cumbersome on attendance and registration bottlenecks but the telco pleaded for understanding to serve better.
Ferdi Moolman, the newly-appointed MTN Nigeria Chief Executive Officer and Aminat Oyagbola, corporate service executive, at joint media briefing in Lagos said, new set of equipment have been invested on to continue the re-registration exercise in compliance with the required international standard set by NCC.
According to Moolman, MTN was particular about resolving the N1.4 trillion fine issue with the NCC to enable the telecommunications firm move forward in its commitment to serving the Nigeria network coverage better and that the SIM re-registration has to be concluded first.
He said: “It is really disturbing and it has become more difficult to import equipment from abroad. These two issues of falling oil prices and fluctuating foreign exchange regime are serious issues, but we have confidence in the Central Bank of Nigeria’s efforts to resolve the matter.”
On SIM registration, Moolman said that a solid database of MTN’s subscribers was key to the next phase of the telecommunications revolution, especially in the area of broadband provisions.
Hence, the operator express full readiness to restore relationship with the telecoms regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) who it is currently battling in court over N1.4 trillion fine imposed on the Company for customers registration infractions.