YESTERDAY Airtel Africa, a leading provider of telecommunications and mobile money services, with a presence in 14 countries across Africa, provided an update on NIN/SIM registrations in Nigeria.
Airtel Nigeria has been notified by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) that with effect from 4 April 2022, all SIMs that have not been linked to a NIN will be placed on ‘receive only’ status with immediate effect.
According to the circular signed by Pier Falcione, the investor relations officer Airtel Africa, subscribers of such lines can still link their SIMs to their NINs in order that these restrictions can be lifted. Customers are therefore being given a final opportunity to fully comply with the latest registration requirements.
Following a directive issued by the NCC on December 7, 2020 to all Nigerian telecom operators, Airtel Nigeria has been with the government to ensure that all their subscribers provide their valid National Identification Numbers (NINs) to update SIM registration records.
To complete the registration process, he said Airtel must link the NIN information received with the SIM of the respective subscribers and share the same with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
The original regulatory directive of December 30th 2020, was an initial deadline for customers to register their NIN with their SIM. This was subsequently moved several times, with the latest deadline set for March 31 2022.
“We have made significant progress on capturing the NINs of our customers and building the database in collaboration with the NIMC. As of today, we have collated NIN information for 73 percent of our active customer base which accounts for around 79 percent of our revenues from Nigeria” he said.
However, he said, the impact on the business in terms of customer numbers and revenues is uncertain. “Our experience of adopting similar procedures in other countries suggests that SIM consolidation is likely to occur in response to implementation, potentially reducing any financial impact”.
In the latest results for the nine-month period to December 31 2021, Airtel Nigeria had an active customer base of 42.4 million and posted revenues of $1,370 million.
He said the company will continue to work with impacted customers to help them to comply with the registration requirements and continue to benefit from full-service connectivity.
