110.43 million lines have so far been registered in the ongoing registration of SIM (Subscriber Identification Module) cards against official figure of 95,886,714 active mobile lines in the country.This is a huge difference of 14.54 million
According to the Executive Vice-Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah:
this is a clear indication of multiple registrations that must be corrected during the verification process that will soon begin.
He said:
“As we speak, we have a combined registration of 110,433,976 of mobile SIM cards that have been registered and the data is going to go through processing and cleaning at the NCC. The registration was variously carried out by the NCC contractors and the network operators.
We are shortly going to begin verification of the SIMs before a number can be said to be duly registered. With the country’s telephone penetration standing at 95,886,714 lines, there is already clear evidence of multiple registrations. These will be eliminated to create a database of integrity and credibility.
As the exercise comes to a close, subscribers whose SIM cards are not registered will be deemed not to be interested in the process or that the SIM cards have been abandoned and will be disconnected,”
According to Juwah successful registration of SIM cards would logically lead to number portability , which is expected to take off in October.
Number Portability enable subscribers that are not satisfied with their current service providers to retain their numbers even when they move to other operators.
