Punch: When will the harmonisation of SIM registration data be completed?

Dr. Eugene Juwah: You will realise that SIM registration, as simple as it looks, is a huge project. There is no centralised identity database in Nigeria today. Most likely, the SIM card database will be the first centralised Nigerian identity database that will be available to the government in Nigeria. Registration has ended. We announced it when it came to an end, but registration of SIM cards is a continuous exercise. Even if we bar the subscribers from using the SIM cards, we still need to give them the opportunity to register their SIMs later as a condition to be able to make calls.

So, this idea that SIM cards will be disconnected indefinitely is a misunderstanding of the project and what we are saying is that while we are doing harmonisation, people who have not registered should take the opportunity to register. We feel that a lot of Nigerians have registered for now. In fact, the people that are remaining are not very many.

The SIM card data is currently being uploaded onto our backend servers. So, it is a huge effort and there are operators that have registered 40 million; there are some that have registered less and it takes time to upload these data because of the volume of the data. It contains details in words, picture, fingerprint and all that. I can tell you that to upload something like 20 million subscribers will take weeks.

So, we are about concluding the uploading right now. Of course, we are a little bit behind schedule but there is nothing you can do when some of the operators are having difficulty in uploading their data. But we are about concluding that. Now, when we do conclude that, there will be an automatic verification of the registration status. In about a week’s time, we will come out to tell the country how this is going to be done.

But it is going to be automatic where people are able to verify their registration status themselves. This will go on for about 30 days, after which we will take it that if you have not registered and if you don’t want to verify your status by identifying that your data are not correct, after 30 days, we are going to bar those cards until they are registered.