Telecom
ANALYSIS: SIMs/NINs Directive: Time to Rescue Telecoms Industry
By Vanguard Newspaper
The directive last week by the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy that the National Identity Number, NIN, has become mandatory for a subscriber to carry a mobile phone is not only a slap on the faces of Nigerians already going through very troubled times but a plain manifestation that arbitrariness is being elevated to the dizzy heights of national policy.
Operators have been given only two weeks to comply and ensure that over 190m subscribers on their networks are properly registered. Or your operating license withdrawn.
We view this as a death sentence for the telecommunications industry, and some experts cautioned last week that a reversal of industry fortunes has been set afoot by an obnoxious official proclamation.
One operator moaned that the regulator wants to wipe out at least more than half of the subscriber base of the industry.
We agree that times are desperate in Nigeria, very desperate. Whole mass of students are spirited away from school and they reappear after a whole week in the den of criminals. Road travel has become a nightmare for the ordinary and the mighty ones. Bandits have taken over the roads and the farms.
Quite unfortunately even for the rich, air travel is beyond the reach of those who used to fly except the hedonists who steal the people’s money for plain pleasure.
According to figures from the National Population Commission, NPC, very bizarre decisions are being taken to rubbish the collective intelligence of a nation and expose the citizenry to ridicule before the international community.
So, using failure in security as pressure point, the ministry under the grip of Dr. Isa Pantami has given a directive capable of destroying the entire communications industry except common sense prevails.
The December 15, 2020, statement signed by Public Affairs Director, Dr. Ikechuckwu Adinde, which affirmed earlier directive for operators to totally suspend registration of new SIMs, stated among others: “Operators to require all their subscribers to provide valid National Identification Number, NIN, to update SIM registration records; The submission of NIN by subscribers to take place within two weeks (from today, December 16, 2020 and end by December 30, 2020).
After the deadline, all SIMs without NINs are to be blocked from the networks.” While conceding the pervasive security challenges, there has been outrage across the land; understandably, by subscribers who feel that apart from the suffering that has worsened more because of COVID-19, a major inconvenience is being added to their burden.
Recall that the country’s economy has gone into recession again and is not expected to recover until late 2021, a development that is forcing more Nigerians to fall into the poverty pit.
Vanguard immediately reached out to a powerful industry source to ask if the directive could be executed in two weeks. The answer was an emphatic NO. We also reached out to a source in the regulatory institution. Is this what should have been done? The answer again was NO. Let’s try to unwrap the intricacies of the unfolding story.
The SIM Card registration regime started in 2011. The exercise was carried out simultaneously by licensed agents of the NCC and the mobile operators. NCC was to warehouse the data. An understanding at the time was that, because of the sensitive nature of personal data, all data will be handed over to the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, whose responsibility it is to manage the National Identity Database.
Till date the progress recorded in that area opens windows to speculations and recriminations. It is interesting to point out here that NIMC was established in 2007. In all the years of existence, the organisation has succeeded in registering only 43.6m! So what magic wand will it wave to accomplish the act in two weeks?
According to figures gleaned from the NCC website, there were 207,954,737 subscribers on the four mobile networks of MTN, Airtel, GLO and 9Mobile by October 2020. An industry source told Vanguard last week that of this figure, about 120m are unique subscribers, discounting double registration of mobile numbers, while the rest could be used in personal internet modems, sectors like banking, vehicle tracking and other sectors where mobile communications have become very handy. There has to be a way to capture these numbers and this cannot be enforced overnight.
Matching the 120m subscriber figure with their NINs is a nightmare which will rubbish the two-week window. For the journey to start at all, all the companies being licensed by NIMC, one expert explained, will have to source for their equipment and get them certified by NIMC before procurement and purchases can take place. To make any meaningful impact immediately, the industry may need at least 250,000 of those machines which are not manufactured here.
Moreover, the NIMC machines are not what are easily sourced in the open market. They are called the 442 machines because they can take four fingers at a go and take the remaining two fingers once. They are more robust than the SIM Card registration machines which can take only two fingers at a time.
The source told Vanguard that this is a logistics nightmare that can hardly be afforded by some of the companies being recruited by NIMC at the moment.
Industry observers are of the opinion that the President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly should put a leash on the minister before he totally destroys the telecommunications industry.
In attendance at the meeting that had to do purely with the regulation of the industry were the CEOs of NCC, the National Information Development Agency, NITDA, and NIMC.
At least one operator told Vanguard they were never at the meeting; instead the minister is taking all the decisions which he is shoving down their throat, thus increasing the fear that the regulator is increasingly losing direction and hold on the industry.
Strains of helplessness are already showing. “We don’t know why the Executive Vice Chairman, EVC, is unable to call some meetings. We are not able to sit down to negotiate on anything,” the source lamented.
Those who fear the directive may become a dangerous super spreader of the COVID-19 pandemic may have been proven right when, last week, somewhere in Abuja, an eye witness told Vanguard that some youths who had gathered for two days at one registration spot, suddenly started demonstrating on noticing the near futility of the exercise and how some advantaged personalities were bending all the rules to favour a few.
The desperation to register will obviously rubbish the PTF recommendation on social distancing in a season of pandemic. Meanwhile, more trouble looms for the industry.
A knowledgeable industry source told Vanguard that, if not properly managed, the directive could destroy half the base of the industry, stymie revenue and investment, and lead to massive job losses.
But all these could pale into insignificance if the minister ever executes his growing threats that “violations of this directive will be met by stiff sanctions, including the possibility of withdrawal of operating license.”
This is hardly the way to speak to organisations that have invested heavily in your economy.
MTN Group, the continent’s telecom behemoth, has plunged into advanced negotiations to acquire the outstanding 75 percent stake in IHS Towers for a staggering $2.76 billion, a seismic move that would hand Africa’s largest mobile operator full reins over one of the world’s premier independent tower companies and redefine infrastructure control across emerging markets.
MTN
The proposed transaction, pegged to IHS’s latest New York Stock Exchange closing price where it trades alongside a Frankfurt listing, builds on MTN’s existing 25 percent holding forged in a landmark 2014 deal that saw the operator offload most tower assets to IHS in exchange for cash and long-term leases.
Sources close to the talks confirm discussions remain fluid with no binding agreement yet inked, and both sides caution that negotiations could shift or stall entirely—MTN has signalled readiness to pivot to alternative value-unlocking strategies for its stake if a full buyout eludes grasp.
Strategically, the power play catapults MTN toward vertical integration in a sector where operators increasingly crave direct grip on passive infrastructure to slash lease bills, streamline upgrades, and rocket-roll 4G/5G amid Africa’s insatiable data deluge.
IHS Towers, MTN’s anchor tenant across swathes of Africa with tens of thousands of masts from Nigeria’s 13,500 tenancies—renewed amid naira-dollar tussles—to South Africa and beyond the Middle East into Latin America, represents a golden infrastructure war chest primed for the operator’s 20-nation blitz.
The saga traces to 2014’s seismic sale that freed MTN capital for spectrum wars while birthing enduring lease pacts, now ripe for reversal as governance dust-ups over shareholder nominations and agendas underscore the buyout’s boardroom chess.
Market tremors rippled through IHS shares post-leak, underscoring the $2.76 billion tag’s gravity as MTN eyes cost efficiencies, network agility, and expansion muscle in oil-volatile economies where tower mastery spells survival.
Should the ink dry, MTN vaults to ownership of a colossus fuelling digital bridges from Lagos megacities to rural frontiers, slashing third-party dependence while supercharging investments in fibre-deep data dreams and 5G horizons.
Analysts buzz that the mega-deal heralds telecom consolidation waves, with operators reclaiming tower turf to fortify against rivals and unlock synergies in a landscape where infrastructure crowns kings.
Neither MTN nor IHS commented officially by press time, but the high-stakes huddle spotlights Africa’s telecom arena hurtling toward an era where owning the poles decides who dominates the digital skies.
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) have issued a forceful warning to road construction companies, government contractors and civil engineering firms across the country, declaring that the era of unchecked fibre-optic cable damage during excavation works is over, with perpetrators now facing criminal prosecution.
NCC, NSCDC
The two agencies, in a joint statement, highlighted the alarming surge in avoidable fibre cuts caused by negligence, poor planning or outright disregard for infrastructure protection protocols, stressing that such incidents severely disrupt Nigeria’s digital backbone and will attract the full weight of the law moving forward.
They described fibre optic cables as indispensable national assets that fuel the nation’s burgeoning digital economy, ensuring uninterrupted communication services, powering emergency response systems, linking businesses for commerce and trade, and enabling seamless government operations at all levels.
Any destruction of these cables, whether through careless excavation, lack of coordination with telecom operators or deliberate sabotage, directly endangers national security, undermines economic stability and compromises public safety, the organisations warned, painting a grim picture of the cascading effects of even brief network outages on hospitals, financial institutions and security agencies nationwide.
Under the Designation and Protection of Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII) Order 2024, telecommunication fibre infrastructure has been officially classified as Critical National Information Infrastructure, making any damage from unauthorised digging, construction activities or failure to collaborate with relevant authorities a clear-cut criminal offence punishable under existing statutes.
Individuals, private construction companies and even government contractors found culpable will face immediate prosecution and stiff sanctions as stipulated in the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act 2015, with the agencies vowing zero tolerance for what they termed economic sabotage disguised as construction mishaps.
“Future damage to fibre optic infrastructure caused by excavation, road construction or any civil engineering activity conducted without due consultation or collaboration with network operators and relevant regulators will attract strict legal consequences,” the NCC and NSCDC declared categorically, underscoring their resolve to safeguard this vital ecosystem through heightened enforcement.
To forestall further incidents, the agencies implored federal, state and local government bodies, road construction firms, utility service providers and private property developers to adopt proactive measures including thorough pre-construction verification of underground fibre routes using approved mapping tools, early collaboration with the NCC, telecom operators and NSCDC both before and during project execution, strict adherence to national guidelines on excavation procedures and right-of-way management, and prompt reporting of any accidental damage to facilitate swift repairs and minimise downtime.
They emphasised that these steps represent the bare minimum for compliance in an era where digital connectivity is non-negotiable for Nigeria’s progress.
Members of the public have also been enlisted in this protection drive, with calls to report suspected sabotage, vandalism or unintended damage to fibre optic installations at the nearest NSCDC office, via email to [email protected] or [email protected], or by dialling the toll-free line 622 for immediate action.
This collaborative approach, the agencies believe, will not only deter would-be offenders but also foster a culture of accountability among all stakeholders handling earth-moving equipment or infrastructure projects in a country racing towards full digital transformation.
Google has flung open applications for its landmark 10th cohort of the Startups Accelerator Africa, doubling down on nearly a decade of continent-wide tech propulsion by targeting Series A pioneers wielding AI and machine learning for scientific and societal moonshots.
The 12-week “AI First” hybrid bootcamp, kicking off April 2026, equips Africa-based or Africa-centric innovators with Google’s AI arsenal, expert mentorship, technical firepower, and investor matchmaking to catapult health and deep-tech ventures into orbit—deadline March 18 at g.co/acceleratorafrica.
“Africa’s tech landscape is seeing a vibrant shift toward deep-tech innovation,” proclaimed Folarin Aiyegbusi, Head of Startup Ecosystem, Africa. “For Class 10, we are focusing on the potential of AI to drive health and societal benefits, providing the infrastructure and expertise to turn these startups into the research labs of the continent.”
Since 2018, the accelerator has turbocharged 180+ startups across 17 nations, unlocking $350 million in funding and 3,700 direct jobs, cementing Google’s role as Africa’s AI innovation forge amid a deluge of homegrown problem-solvers.
Equity-free and hybrid-powered, Class 10 promises Google’s product credits, strategic war rooms, and global networks to forge the next wave of African AI trailblazers reshaping everything from disease detection to climate resilience.
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