GSM subscribers frustrations over NIN: We take the heat for NIMC faults – Service providers

GSM subscribers frustrations over NIN: We take the heat for NIMC faults – Service providers

At the third NCC 2021 ‘Talk To The Regulator’ forum held in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, the service providers lamented that much of the anger directed by customers at them over challenges with linking the NIN are sheer transfered aggression emanating from lapses of the NIMC.

‘Talk To The Regulator’ is an interactive session between the regulators and stakeholders, particularly licensees of the NCC, to rub minds on highlighting and improving solutions on challenges hampering the business.

Airtel Retail Manager, Port Harcourt Branch, Doreen Ekeh, on the challenge with NIN, explained that, “When they (customers) come to the office, they think we are the ones not helping them out whereas the challenge is not coming from us.

“We try to do Know Your Customer (KYC), it’s not going. The customer has the NIN, but it’s unable to sync because it is not verified. They go back to office of the NINC people to complain that it is not working. Most of them collect money from them and tell them that it has been sync.

“But when they still come back, we are unable to carry out swap, we are unable to do KYC, because it is not verified. So we would love NCC to look into that, interact with the NINC to improve the system so we are able to serve our customers better. Apart from this NINC issue, NCC is doing well at the moment. We don’t have bad services again.”

Prof Umar Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, NCC, Represented by an Executive Commissioner, Adedeke Adewolu, noted that much of the progress being made by the industry regulator in recent times has been stimulated by deliberate commitment to improving stakeholder satisfaction.

Among key improvement indices, Danbatta pointed to “contribution-to GDP (which grew to 14.42% in Q2 2021), active internet subscriptions (reached over 140million at the end of September, 2021), teledensity (which reached 99.98% at the end of September, 2021), and Broadband penetration (40.01%% of the population at the end of September, 2021).”

The the 2021 third NCC ‘Talk To The Regulator’, on the theme, “Improving Stakeholder Satisfaction”, continues in Port Harcourt with more presentations on improvement insights and interactions for mutual satisfaction among stakeholders.