Nigeria’s biggest telecommunication firms are planning to go to court to compel the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to suspend the registration of all SIM cards by March this year.
Indications on Tuesday were that the telecom firms had chosen to take the legal route as a last option in their efforts to stop the exercise if the current lobby, which includes a planned visit to the presidency, failed to persuade the regulatory authorities to extend the registration by at least 18 months.
The move is an effort to have a proper record of mobile subscribers in the country and to be able to identify and trace users in case of criminal or other anti-social conduct.
The telecom firms’ main argument is that the time frame is too short and they are querying credentials of the external consultant hired by NCC to handle the project, which they say may not do a good job. There are fears that the exercise may hit the fortunes of the industry.
MTN, Globacom, Zain and Etisalat all say the time frame proposed by NCC was unrealistic, in addition to serious questions that surround the modalities to be adopted by the NCC.
They said they would prefer to register their over 70 million subscribers themselves, rather than have the exercise conducted by external consultants as proposed by the NCC, an option which they say, would be more secure and thorough, as well as save government huge financial costs.
by Okoro Chinedu
