SIM Registration: Private Operators Make Brisk Business In PH

A mobile network provid
ers in the country continue to bar subscriber lines on the grounds of incomplete SIM card registration, private mobile registration operators are now having a field day due to the high influx of customers.
A subscriber who gave  his name as Mr Maduwachi Monday, said SIM card re-registration had now become a huge income spinner in Port Harcourt.
He hinted that both his Airtel and Glo lines had been bared due to the net work providers’ claims of incomplete registration.
Monday, noted that he had spent over N200 in registering both lines previously, but wondered why he should spend more money to re-register same lines.
He accused the mobile private SIM card registration centres of encouraging the system, so that they can make more money.
Another phone user, Chisa Amadi, said it cost her N300 to register her two lines with a private body.
She recalled how some subscribers have spent over one week at the network providers’ offices without having their lines registered as a result of huge crowd at the MTN office along Port Harcourt/Aba Expressway.
Without being particular about the money spent, she expressed worry over the issue of putting subscribers under pressure always by telecom operators in the country.
In his view, Mr Ejikeme Princewill, suggested licencing of the private mobile SIM card registration bodies in order to ease the business for the statutory telecommunication companies.
He argued that since the network providers were re-registering their customers free, the process was slow, hence the need to licence the private bodies to speed up the system.
The Tide learnt that some private sim card registration centres are making well over N10,000 on daily basis due to high rate of business turn-over.
Other subscribers like Mr Julius Amadi and Joy Chima have called President Mohammadu Buhari to close-mark the operations of telecommunication providers in the country, so as to check their lukewarm attitude.

L-R: Chief Executive Officer and Vice President, ATC Nigeria, Godon Porter, Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators, Gbenga Adebayo, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Muhammed and Director, Legal and Regulatory Affairs/Company Secretary, Airtel, Mr Shola Adeyemi, during the meeting of the Minister with mobile telecommunication operators in Lagos on Monday.