By Adetokunbo Abiola

Mabel Olabunmi gazes at the guard at the MTN office in Akure, her six-month pregnancy showing in her belly, her hair spilling on her shoulders. She had arrived for an MTN sim upgrade earlier in the day, wrote her name down, and now she arrived late in the afternoon, the guard said she should re-register.
“But I wrote down my name earlier,” she said. “Why am I to write down my name again? You people are inconsiderate, in spite of my condition,” she said with anger.
Other people who sat down in front of the MTN office thought the guard was inconsiderate too, having waited for hours to upgrade their sim cards, with no sign forthcoming that they would achieve their objective. Others sat inside MTN’s office, unable to upgrade their sim cards. This scenario faces people in Akure and other places who want to upgrade their sim cards, following the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy’s order that upgrade of sim cards could restart on April 19.
The problem with upgrade of sim cards began in December 2020, when the federal government ordered all telecommunication service providers to get National Identification Numbers (NIN) of subscribers, a move which led to the suspension of the upgrade of sim cards. Subscribers who failed to get their NIN within two weeks were to be blocked from using their SIM cards. The submission of NIN by subscribers were to take place within two weeks (from December 16, 2020 and end by 30 December, 2020), and in the ensuing rush, sim card upgrades were suspended. Unfortunately, when wireless operators resumed sim upgrade operations on April 19, problems confronted the process, especially for those whose sim cards needed an upgrade or got stolen.
“My phone got stolen two weeks ago and I have on it my MTN sim together with 9mobile. Retrieving the lines has been a herculean task, as I have been going to their centre for several days without any headway. Please guys what is happening. Just to retrieve sim is now like climbing Mountain Everest,” said oladele239 on Nigeria’s premier blog, Nairaland.
On seeing the idle computers in the MTN Akure office, this reporter surmises why sim upgrades look as difficult as climbing Mountain Everest, because network seems down. Voice and data networks have been poor in Nigeria for some time, and this affects internet connectivity, pulling down browsing speed, forcing MTN to be powerless. According to Nairametrics, an online platform, the network issue is beyond Nigeria, as internet users across sub-Saharan Africa also experienced the same issue. The slow service is due to damages of two undersea cables – WACS and SAT3/WASC cable systems – on the continent’s western coast.
One undersea cable lies near Libreville in Gabon, and the other is in the vicinity of Luanda, Angola. The consequences of the damage to these undersea cables at a time of sim card upgrade and acqui8sition of NIN, as well as to the bottom line of wireless companies, have been grave. According to the Nigerian Communication Commission, the four major wireless players in Nigeria lost a total of 11.8 million customers since the implementation of NIN-SIM card ban by the federal government in December 2020. Specifically, the total subscriber base of the four major telco firms in Nigeria reduced from 207.58 million at the end of November 2020 to 195.73 million in February 2021. This represents a 5.71% decline within the space of three months. The decline in the number of telco subscribers could be attributed to the suspension of sim card sales and registration as Nigerians grappled with the stress of registering and upgrading sim cards. For those who lost their phones, it could be sheer hell upgrading their sim cards.
“I lost my phone on Feb 7, and went through hell before I could retrieve my MTN sim. I resumed with MTN staff and closed together, waiting for network to come. To God be the glory, I got my MTN sim retrieved on Feb 15, but my Airtel sim that I retrieved before MTN is still not working, telling me to wait for another two weeks, as they have sent my details to NCC, waiting for NCC to confirm my registration before it will start working. The best thing to do is keep your phone safe as retrieving sims is very difficult. To hell with NCC and NIMC,” said Ricky Banky on Nairaland.
For those who fail to keep their phone safe, other challenges face them on going to upgrade their cards, due to the rowdiness characterizing the situation. They could fall victim to sharp practices by unscrupulous people, who might want to take advantage of them in the process of hustling to upgrade their cards. One of them at the Akure MTN office was Gbenga Adesola.
“They told me to bring five hundred naira before I could enter,” he says. “They said unless I bring the 500 naira I cannot enter.”
He refused to disclose the person who asked for the money, and since those going to get new sim cards had no difficulty in getting into the MTN office, one can assume someone wanted to take advantage of Gbenga.
Despite the chaos at the MTN office in Akure, the wireless company sends messages to subscribers, asking them to upgrade their sim to 4G, but when subscribers embark on the venture, they face difficulties.
“I saw hell when I went there to upgrade my MTN sim to 4G. They told me the sim is 4G already as shown on their system but the coverage is always 3G and I kept receiving messages to upgrade to 4G. I inserted other sim cards (my other MTN, Glo & Airtel sims) and they confirmed it that only that single sim (which is my hot line) doesn’t cover 4G. They got confused but still stood on their claim. I’m of doing retrieval, maybe that would solve the problem, but I do not have such a luxurious time to waste at the moment,” said James Olabisi.
Things have to change, because plenty of Nigerians also don’t have a luxurious time to waste on upgrading MTN sim cards. For things to change, or for people not to get caught up with the rat-race involved in upgrading their sim cards, they have to keep them safe, thus preventing the need to retrieve or upgrade them.
“I’ve learnt my lesson,” said Gbenga. “I’ll never play around with my sim card again, after I upgrade it. I’ll make sure I watch it with an eagle eye, so It doesn’t get missing.”
For those whom MTN harasses to upgrade their sim cards to 4G, it’s left for the devil to determine their fate, when they get to the offices of the wireless provider for the exercise.