After coming through a recent battle with the Nigerian National Assembly over its SIM card registration budget, the Nigerian Communications Commission is now taking aim at registering existing users in the country.
The bout, orchestrated by the refusal of some members of the House of Representatives to endorse the budget, nearly scuttled the NCC’s plans to spearhead and supervise the registration of the existing GSM subscribers in the country.
However, last Monday the commission kick-started the exercise with the contracting of seven companies, including well known Nigerian ICT companies, Chams Plc and PNN, among five others, to commence the registration across the six geo political zones of the country.
The firms also included SW Global, which will cover the South East areas of Anambra, Enugu, Abia, Ebonyi, and Imo states; PNN, which would cover North Central areas of Abuja, Plateau, Benue, Niger, Kogi, Kwara and Nassarawa; Chams which will cover the Lagos area; and JKK, which will take care of the South West areas of Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ekiti and Ondo states.
Others are, DATAGROUPIT, for North East areas of Yobe, Borno, Gombe, Bauchi, Adamawa and Taraba states; EAGLE/CBC, for North West areas of Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Kano and Jigawa states; and E-Kenneth/SageMetrics, to cover South South areas of Cross River, Delta, Edo, Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Bayelsa states.
By Johnathan Terry
