SIM registration: Operators develop strategies to deepen exercise

The low response by subscribers towards the on-going Subscribers Identification Modules (SIM) registration exercise seems to have prompted some operators to come up with incentives to ginger subscribers to register their SIMs. BANKOLE ORIMISAN write on this new initiative.

WITH approximately two months left to complete the SIM registration exercise across the six geo-political zones of the country, the turnout so far appears not to be very encouraging and this has prompted service providers to come up with new strategy to woo subscribers.

     The Nigerian Communications  (NCC) had given September 28 deadline for all subscribers in the country to get their SIMs registered to avoid being blocked from the mobile networks.

     To this end, the commission had embarked on several enlightenment campaigns, including radio jingles, television, billboards and newspaper adverts.     

     Few months back, it published all the registration centres in the country in a number of national newspapers to ensure subscribers know where to go.

     According to the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, while addressing journalists in Abuja early last month stressed that subscribers must avoid a situation whereby their SIM cards would be blocked after the September 28 deadline.

     Juwah said, it was expedient for all subscribers to register their SIMs because it was symbolic, as it will give the country an enhanced database and boost security measures being canvassed by the Federal Government.

     The EVC stressed that the exercise is targeted at the over 70 million unregistered SIM cards in the country, which came on the heels of a similar exercise carried out by GSM operators in Nigeria.

     Besides, Juwah in February, had disclosed that the exercise, which the operators, including MTN, Glo, Airtel and Etisalat had done, registered only 11 million cards out of the existing over 90 million active SIMs in the country within the eight months period of July 2010 to February 2011.

     This, according to him was abysmally low, compared to the expectations, and subsequently prompted the regulator to initiate another process of the exercise. 

     With the approval of the N6.1 billion budgets by the National Assembly, the NCC had on March 28, 2011, commenced the six-month nationwide registration exercise.

     The commission equally contracted seven service providers to implement the registration exercise across the country’s six geo-political zones.

   While Chams was contracted to register subscribers in Lagos, other six companies approved by the Commission are SW Global for South-East, PNN for North Central, JKK for South West, DataGroupIT for North East, Eagle/CBC for North West and E-Kenneth/ SageMetrics for the South-South.

     For maximum coverage and supervision, the commission appointed KPMG, a leading consulting firm, to coordinate the exercise of the seven contractors. The NCC registration had engaged a total of 1,750 agents at 250 each for the nationwide exercise, with a promise to increase the number to about 4000, should the need arises.

     According to the Head, Media and Public Relations, NCC, Mr. Reuben Muoka, the registration centres would continue to grow across the country and that, some of the registration agents would move around with mobile units to cover areas that might not have fixed registration centres such as markets and other similar locations.

      However, despite all these efforts, there seems to be a sort of subscribers’ apathy, as most registration centres visited in Lagos and other parts of the country including, Port Harcourt, Osun, Ondo, Kebbi, Kano among others are relatively empty, with some of the agents finding nobody to register.

      Besides, there are complaints by some subscribers that the registration centres are sparsely distributed, making it difficult for willingly subscribers to register.

   A subscriber, Patricia Uloma, based in Onitsha, Anambra state, complained bitterly that, registration centres of both NCC and operators are tough to locate in the area. She called for more centres in the area.

     But to Chams Plc, covering Lagos, there has been poor turnout of subscribers in the last five months.

The number of subscribers that have registered is not encouraging. We will need more advertisements and vigorous enlightenment campaigns for the success of the exercise. We have deployed many people for the exercise, but they are just doing one-to-one marketing and this is not encouraging

According to the Managing Director, Demola Aladekomo, “the number of subscribers that have registered is not encouraging. We will need more advertisement and vigorous enlightenment campaigns for the success of the exercise. We have deployed many people for the exercise, but they are just doing one-to-one marketing and this is not encouraging.”

    The NCC had also directed GSM companies to put new SIM cards on their networks on ‘receive only’ mode to ensure that subscribers register their SIM cards. It also threatened to impose a fine of N5 million on any operator that flouted the order.

     Meanwhile, as part of efforts to encourage and speed up the exercise, service providers, notably Globacom and Etisalat have put up incentives in form of promos to encourage subscribers.

      According to Globacom, the new campaign was aimed at encouraging Glo subscribers to register their old and new SIM cards before the September 28 deadline, so as not to jeopardise the rationale behind the exercise.  

     Globacom’s Group COO, Mohamed Jameel stressed that the new campaign was targeted at expediting the pace of the ongoing Glo SIM registration exercise, which the company started last year, through special incentives, which will encourage all existing and new subscribers to register their SIMs.

    He stated that those customers who complied and immediately register their SIMs would be rewarded with fantastic prizes during the three-month duration of the campaign.

   In the first instance, Jameel said all subscribers, who register their SIMs get a guaranteed 30 minutes of free airtime during the three months of the promotion. 10 minutes of free airtime is given every month for three months.

     The 30 minutes bonus airtime will be given immediately the person recharges N500 and above in each of the three months of the campaign and will be valid for seven days.

    He added that an additional N20, 000 worth of free airtime will also be given out to 300 lucky subscribers who will be picked during special draws, which are to be held monthly, 100 lucky customers will be selected monthly and rewarded.

     Jameel informed that, the highlight of the campaign is the offer of free all-expense paid pleasure trips to Manchester or Dubai for 60 lucky subscribers who register their SIMs. The winners of the free trips will be picked during special draws, which will be conducted monthly for three months.

   “The campaign will, therefore, see 10 lucky subscribers traveling to each destination each month for three months. At the end of the day, 30 Glo subscribers would have made an unforgettable trip to Manchester to watch English Premier League champions, Manchester United, play at their home turf, while another 30 would have taken a memorable trip to Dubai as a reward for simply registering their SIMs.

     In order to make the new SIM registration campaign a huge success, all Gloworlds, Glozones, Dealer outlets and Glo agents across the country have been sufficiently equipped with high-tech systems to ensure quick, efficient registration of customer SIMs.

     The whole registration process with Glo takes less than two minutes at these points. Glo Subscribers can also text “reg” to the short code “3456” in order to confirm whether their SIMs had been registered or not on the Glo network.

     To Emirate Telecommunications Corporation, also called Etisalat, subscribers, who register their SIMs in July and recharged for the next 30 days will get free credit back.

     Specifically, Etisalat said any of their subscribers who registered within the stated period would get rewarded with 30 per cent of their total recharges up to N10000 free credit to call any network. For example, customers that load N1000, gets N300 back, while those who loads N5, 000 will get N1, 500 back. 

     According to an official of the telecommunications company, who does not want his name in print, this measure was taken to encourage subscribers, both existing and new members to register their SIMs.

    On possible surge on the network, the official said, “if your fear is about network congestion, we have put up serious measures to curb that. In fact, we just invested some amount on infrastructure and network upgrade. Though, of late, the services have been bad truly, but I can tell operators are really striving to get things back to normal and one is just what I have told you about Etisalat.”  

      Also, the former Chief Executive Officer of Starcomms Plc, Maher Qubain at a news briefing recently, informed that the telecommunications provider, has engaged more hands to boost its subscribers registration, stressing that, it has become necessary to ensure that everybody on the Starcomms network are registered duly before the expiration date.      

     The President of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, Mr. Titi Omo-Ettu, believes that the registration exercise is very important.

     According to him, the exercise will reveal the real number of telephone subscribers in the country.

    Asserting that current statistics of subscribers are out of proportion, Omo-Ettu added that knowing the true situation would enable the industry and the country to establish the addressable market.

Nextzon, Chams partner on new National Identity Management System Infrastructure

By Bankole Orimisan

For Nigerians to witness secured and sustainable identity management system infrastructure  in the country, Nextzon Business Service limited and Chams plc, has come together to implement a new (NIMSI) into the Nigeria environment.

    In expatiation on the significant of the identification, the Managing Director of Nextzon Business Services Limited, Macauley Atasie, said national identification number has been used by governments of many countries as a way of planning for employment, taxation, government benefits, health care and other related functions.

    Atasie, noted that initiatives will in turn enhance national security and delivery of essential public as well as private sector services.

    He added that the financial sector will also benefit as it will significantly help in fraud reduction and Know-Your-Customer (KYC) processes. Ultimately it will help minimize incidences of identity theft in Nigeria as the biometrics of the ten fingers of each enroller will be captured in the NIMS database.

    In his words the project is being implemented under a public-private partnership arrangement and supervised by the National Identity Management Commission and entails the enrolment of all Nigerians who are 16 years old and above.

    According to him the enrolment exercise will precede the issuance of unique National Identity Numbers and chip based identity cards.

    He pointed out that under the partnership arrangement;   Nextzon is responsible for bid assistance services to enable the consortium win the concession as well as the business modelling and process design required to set and operationalize the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) owned by the parties for this purpose.

  However, Nextzon has also incubated the SPV into an operational entity as well as help source the finance required for takeoff in collaboration with Liquid Africa, a South African based firm of financial advisors.

  “We are fully aware of the enormous financial resources required for the project against the backdrop of the 12-year concession granted to us to build, operate and transfer the front end components of the new national identity management system across states of the federation and the FCT. “We have secured take off funding and have reached advanced stages in sourcing the main funds required”, he stated.

    The Managing Director, Chams Plc, Mr. Demola Aladekomo, commended the Federal Government for embracing the project. He described it as unfortunate the absence of a robust and viable national identity management system in Nigeria after 50 years of independence.

     According to him “for a country with over 150 million people and immense resources like Nigeria, the absence of a sound, secure and sustainable identity management system which will stand the test of time is regrettable. “We are therefore committed to the creation of a world class identity management system that would lead the way in the identity management for the people of this country”.

   He said they had completed the proof of concept phase of the project, the Consortium has now commenced the first phase of roll-out covering selected states of the 6 geographical zones.  This should culminate in full roll-out sometime in July/August this year.

Propertygate to leverage on real estate development Real Estate

By Bankole Orimisan

UPBEAT about impressive real estate investment results posted in the 2010 year, management of Propertygate Development and Investment Plc has expressed desire to step up its stake in the property development and real estate advisory services market.

  Managing Director of the company, Mr. Adetokunbo Ajayi, at the company’s 2nd yearly General Meeting, stated that the company, sequel to its impressive results posted recently, would key into the need for high-class luxury apartment by certain aspects of the society.

  He added that the company’s prospect from 2011 was bright and that beyond that it expects the financial and capital markets to commence encouraging recovery, and proceed to enhanced capacities to help economic recovery, expansion and integration.

  Ajayi said: “We also expect economic growth and diversification, as key infrastructure and policy issues are tackled. The need for decent housing will continue to rise, as tempo of urbanisation increases on the heels of economic growth. Against these settings, opportunities for real estate remain particularly bright”.

  He informed shareholders that though the year 2010 showed relative improvement compared to the preceding year, it was nonetheless a tough year. “In spite of the challenges, the company remained focused and through diligence, is pleased to report a much improved performance compared to the year end 2009”.

  Assuring shareholders of the continued focus of the company in its business areas of development, investment and property advisory, he said, “we shall seek to have competitive advantage through market inspired products and services, domain expertise anchored on deep knowledge and skills, exceptional capacity aided by technology and processes, differentiation powered by brand equity, quality manpower with strong culture of performance underpinned by solid corporate values, innovation and sound management. It is our strong expectation that Propertygate will continue in its determined quest to fulfil its overall corporate aspirations.”

CFIN commends President Jonathan over new Evidence Act

By Bankole Orimisan

COMPUTER Forensics Institute, Nigeria (CFIN), the government approved body for the training and certification of digital forensics experts in Nigeria, has commended President Goodluck Jonathan for the swift way his administration signed into law the new Evidence Act that has now paved the way for the admissibility of computer and electronic generated evidences in Nigerian courts.

     The President/Chairman of the body, Dr..Peter Olu. Olayiwola declared recently in a press statement issued to the newsmen, congratulated Nigerians on this noble feat achieved in the early stage of the President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration heaving a sigh of relief that at last digital and computer forensic evidence is now admissible in the courts of our land. 

     He said with this development there’s hope for this country even as he expressed the gratitude of CFIN to all those in the forefront of fighting for the realisation of the new Evidence Act. The body was exceptionally grateful to Senator Sola Akinyede and his committee and the National Assembly for working tirelessly to push through the amendment of the 68-year-old Act.

     Olayiwola explained the role of CFIN to nation building and said his institute works in the area of national security by assisting the federal and states law enforcement agencies and other agencies of government that have to do with security in the area of capacity building by developing the capabilities in the identified staff that man certain critical areas in their various organisations.

     While introducing computer forensics as the science of detection and investigation of crime committed either using the computer or on the computer network, Internet and other digital devices with the intent of giving digital evidence in litigation, Dr. Olayiwola said computer forensics can be used to detect and gather evidence that will lead to the prosecution of the culprit.  According to him, over 75 per cent of all criminal cases have one form of digital or electronic evidence or the other.

     Further, he said there is no country in the world that is absolutely crime free but that what advanced and forward looking nations have done was to use technology to ameliorate and investigate forensically any time a crime was committed to be able to bring the perpetrators to book.

      Olayiwola therefore said with the amendment of the Evidence Act that the coast was now clear for the full practice of computer forensics in Nigeria assuring that Nigeria will witness a new era in her legal and judicial system.  

     According to him, Nigerians can now make full use of the expertise of certified digital and computer forensics examiners as expert witnesses in their court cases as is the case in countries with the same type of Nigeria’s new Evidence Act.

NCS jostles for IT impact in Nigeria

By Bankole Orimisan

NIGERIA Computer Society (NCS) at its national head office in Lagos, has declared its resolve to lead the revamping of the nation’s economy by reflecting on the growth of Information Technology (IT) in the last 50 years.

 The association led by its president, Professor Charles Uwadia, said the body is poised to hold discussions to x-ray the impact of information technology in the country with a view to remodeling the policy thrust to improve the economy.

  He revealed that NCS has set aside November 10 to assemble distinguished Nigerians in the field of IT at Lagos Event Centre to reflect on the impact of IT since independence.

 “If we must effectively harness abundant national resources in order to achieve the goals of economic and socio-political development, the underlining activities must be completely anchored on it.”

 According to him, “Nigeria has done well on a number front as individual and collectively as a nation. Therefore, while we might have not fully met the expectations of the generally of Nigerians, it may not be fair to brand the country a failed state as some people would want to suggest. We must identify missed opportunities and what we need to do to make Nigeria truly the giant of Africa.”

 Chairman of NCS conference committee, Shuaibu Afolabi Salisu, stressed on the need for the National Assembly to come up with necessary regulation to encourage investment in the IT sector.

 He confirmed that, “the potentials are here and we believe with refocused attitude Nigerians can make a good impact on the economy within shortest time in making our impact in the country.”