On Wednesday evening, *Femi, who runs a last-mile delivery business in Lagos, texted me, saying, “Is there any way I can get a SIM card? I’ve been trying for weeks.”
Without new SIM cards, he can’t proceed with expanding his services to Abuja.
Many individuals like Femi are struggling due to the suspension of SIM card sales and registration in Nigeria. This new rule was announced by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in December 2020.
The NCC did not act independently; during a press conference, it mentioned that the directive came from the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami. The purpose of the suspension was to enable a comprehensive audit of the Subscriber Registration Database.
“We are clamping down on multiple SIM registrations and fraudulent sales conducted by dishonest vendors to facilitate fraud and other nefarious activities,” the commission stated.
To address this issue, the commission mandated that all SIM card owners link their National Identity Number (NIN) to their mobile numbers, with the threat that all SIM cards without an associated NIN would be deactivated by December 30th, 2020.
An Impractical NIN Registration Deadline
The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has struggled with enrolling people for NIN, which is a step towards obtaining the National Identity card. For years, the process has been slow and plagued by inefficiency.
Out of Nigeria’s 99 million unique mobile subscribers, only 48.2 million have obtained their NIN. This prompted the NCC to extend the deadline for registering all unlinked SIM cards first to April 6, 2021, and recently to May 6, 2021.
However, these deadlines remain unrealistic. If it has taken several years to register only 48.2 million people, it’s unlikely that the remaining 50.8 million will be registered within four weeks.
Economic Impact on Telcos and Businesses
The continued ban on SIM card sales and registration has economic consequences for telecommunications companies, business owners, and entrepreneurs.
In its 2020 year-end report, Nigeria’s leading telecom provider, MTN, noted, “The introduction of additional customer registration and suspension of new SIM sales and activation in mid-December 2020 affected subscriber growth.”
Airtel’s full-year report indicated that they collected NIN information for 21 million mobile customers (47%). “We anticipate that this will impact customer growth in Nigeria in Q4’21, but the overall effect is still uncertain.”
Internet service providers are also feeling the strain. With most reliant on SIM registration procedures, they have been unable to acquire new customers for four months.
Challenges for SIM Registration Agents
The suspension has affected the larger network of individuals who make a living from SIM card registration.
According to the Arewa Telecom Operators Agents and SIMCard Dealers Association (ATOASDA), 2 million young people will be impacted by the suspension. While this figure cannot be independently verified, it highlights the value chain underlying SIM registration.
Registration is primarily conducted by independent operators and agents who earn commissions based on the number of SIMs they register. It has become a source of income for many young people across the country.
Agents typically earn between ₦15,000 to ₦75,000 monthly, but this income source is now uncertain.
Some are circumventing the situation by selling their extra SIM cards to willing buyers. One person mentioned purchasing SIM cards for ₦7,000 and another for ₦11,000 in Lagos. However, this is not a sustainable income source for SIM registration agents, and if the NIN registration deadline is extended again, the impact will be widely felt.
