Telecom operators said they will comply with the directive of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to bar calls from phone numbers that are yet to be linked to their National Identity Numbers (NIN) marking the second phase of the exercise.
The operators are not unmindful of the financial losses the exercise might bring to them because over 40 million SIM cards were involved in the first phase.The telcos, however, said they were undeterred by the huge financial losses staring them in the face but were more concerned with cooperating with the Federal Government to get credible national data for national security.
A source at the weekend confirmed that the operators’ bottom-line would indeed be hit by the directive of the Federal Government to disconnect SIM cards that have not been linked with their NINs with the data base of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
“Recall the partial ban placed by the Federal Government via the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on calls originating from SIMs not linked to NIN had taken a terrific toll on mobile network operators’ (MNOs’) revenue.
“Recall also that the stoppage of the registration of new SIM cards about two or three years ago had also negatively impacted the industry. Now we are talking about totally shutting out several millions of active subscribers out of the network. In the business, telcos make money from voice calls and data but when these two major revenue sources are completely severed, losses are inevitable. The scale cannot readily be ascertained now because the exercise is still ongoing,” the source said on condition of anonymity.
Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbenga Adebayo, in a telephone interview had said his members were more concerned with the implementation of the Federal Government directive than monetary losses.
Director of Public Affairs at NCC, Reuben Muoka, had insisted that the directive for disconnection is being rolled out in stages, with the second phase set for 29 March as earlier announced. He said the initial phase took place at the end of February.
He said: “We issued a publication that you can refer to. We specified certain deadlines and stipulated that subscribers who do not comply with the directive would be barred. And that has not changed.’’
“29th of February was when those that have not submitted their NIN to be linked to the SIM to be barred and those that have been barred.
“We published another deadline for those who have submitted their NIN but it failed because it has not been verified, that is the one that is due for disconnection today. While another set is the ones with ghost verification, these are for those who have more than five numbers.”
The Commission’s seemingly hard-line position hinged on its objective to clean the country’s SIM ownership database and enhance homeland security, it was gathered.
“The commission is committed to ensuring that criminals do not take advantage of having multiple unlinked SIMs to carry out their nefarious activities,” an industry expert said.
MTN Nigeria, the largest operator, is said to have reported that over 4.2 million lines were disconnected from its network after the February 28 deadline.
The May 4, 2021 directive of the Federal Government to the four operators-MTN, Glo, Airtel and 9mobile through the NCC affected no fewer than 72.7million subscribers.
Airtel Nigeria had also said the full implementation of the NIN-SIM that had barred over 72million from originating calls from their mobile phones took a toll on its subscriber base in the country.
The Revised National Digital Identity Policy for SIM Card Registration approved by the Federal Government last year had made the use of NIN mandatory for all SIM registration. Part of the new policy was for subscribers to link their NIN with their SIM. After several extensions of deadlines for subscribers to link their NINs with their SIMs, the Federal Government directed the NCC to bar SIMs not linked to NINs from making calls.
The telecom company, in its results for the year ended March 31, 2022 said: “NIN/SIM regulations in Nigeria impacted customer growth in H1, but then returned to strong growth, adding 4 million customers in Nigeria during H2’22.”
Highlight of the report showed that revenue grew by 20.6per cent for the year, to $4,714million, and 17.8per cent for Q4. Constant currency underlying revenue grew 23.3per cent for the year and 19.1per cent in Q4.
It said constant currency underlying revenue growth was strong in all regions: Nigeria up 27.7per cent, East Africa up 22.7per cent and Francophone Africa up 17.2per cent; and across all key services, with revenue in Voice up 15.4 per cent, Data up 34.6per cent and Mobile Money up 34.9per cent.
Underlying Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) of $2,311million, grew by 29.0per cent in reported currency; underlying EBITDA margin of 49.0per cent, increased by 294 basis points; operating profit grew by 37.2 per cent to $1,535million in reported currency; while profit after tax grew by 82.0per cent to $755million
The operator posted operating free cash flow of $1,655million, up 40.5per cent, with net cash generated from operating activities up 20.7per cent to $2,011million. Over the last 12 months, the business has repaid nearly $1.4billion of debt at HoldCo as a result of strong cash upstreaming across its OpCos and proceeds from minority investments in mobile money and tower sales while its leverage ratio improved to 1.3x from 2.0x in the prior year, with $1billion of debt now held at HoldCo (FY’21: $2.4billion).
It posted a customer base of 128.4 million, up 8.7per cent, with increased penetration across mobile data (customer base up 15.2per cent) and mobile money services (customer base up 20.7 per cent). Board recommended a final dividend of 3 cents per share, making total FY’22 dividends 5 cents per share (FY’21: 4 cents).
Its Chief Executive Officer, Segun Ogunsanya, said: “This is another strong set of results for Airtel Africa, demonstrating our solid execution as we continue to enrich the lives of a growing number of people through leveraging the sizeable opportunity to promote digital and financial inclusion across our markets.
“We have delivered strong double-digit growth in revenues across all our regions and all our key services, with improving margins driven by strong cost control, and expanding cash generation which is enabling us to continue to invest in our network and services and expand our distribution, as well as strengthening our balance sheet and increasing our returns to shareholders. We are connecting more customers in new and existing coverage areas and driving usage levels and ARPUs to new highs.
“We have successfully executed on a number of strategic initiatives in the year, with tower sales completed in four countries, $550million of minority investments secured for our mobile money business and a successful buyout of minorities in our Nigerian operation. Our receipt last month of a full PSB licence in Nigeria will help us to accelerate financial inclusion in the territory and drive our mobile money business even faster.
“While the fundamentals of our six-pillar growth strategy remain unchanged, we are looking to accelerate our performance through a greater focus on digitalisation and we have underpinned our strategic pillars with our sustainability ambition.”
Recall that the Max-4 rule announced by the Federal Government in April 2021 provided that telecom subscribers cannot have more than four lines per mobile network operator.
The NCC has also provided MNOs an extension till 31 July, to verify all NINs submitted by subscribers with four or fewer SIMs, as well as bar those which NINs fail verification with NIMC.
The compulsory linkage began in 2020 when the government directed telecommunication companies to block calls from unregistered and unlinked lines.
The policy was expected to help the authorities in fighting bandits and terrorists who kidnap and kill innocent people daily. Despite the extension of deadlines, many phone lines are yet to be linked.
Last week, the NIMC and the NCC issued a joint statement unveiling a strategic partnership aimed at simplifying the NIN-SIM linkage procedures for telecommunications subscribers nationwide.
Both agencies reaffirmed their dedication to enhancing the processes involved and improving efficiency regarding the NIN and SIM card linkage initiative.
They acknowledge the importance of this initiative in bolstering security measures and enhancing service delivery across the country.
According to market research, during the period of the partial ban, teledensity had decreased from its highest peak of 108.92 per cent at the end of November 2020 and a drop in the number of mobile subscriptions from nearly 208 million to 200.2 million.
Additionally, active internet subscriptions have dipped from nearly 155 million at the end of November 2020 to about 151.2 million at the end of January 2021.
This represents a loss of 3.6 million active internet subscriptions within two months – after over a year of steady growth in active internet subscriptions.
Voice over internet protocol (VoIP) also suffered a similar fate with active subscriptions dropping from 429,121 to 387,169 within the same period.
Furthermore, between November and December 2020 broadband penetration decreased marginally from 45.07per cent to 45.02 per cent. However, between December 2020 and January 2021 Nigeria experienced a major decrease in broadband penetration when it fell to 42.93per cent after the number of broadband subscriptions dropped from nearly 86 million to less than 82 million.
Fixed wired active internet subscriptions in Nigeria continued with steady month-on-month growth from 9,866 at the end of February 2020 to 11,545 at the end of January 2021.
