BVN registration: As with telecom operators, would so be for the banks?

By Laju Iren
THE Nigeria Communications Commission, NCC, carried out an unprecedented action, weekend, slamming telecommunications giant, MTN, with a fine of N1.04 trillion for failing to deactivate 5.1 million unregistered SIM cards on its network within the stipulated time. Specifically, Hi-Tech gathered that the NCC fine was for allegedly undermining efforts by the Nigerian
government to tackle security challenges and the war on terror and allied crimes, as the telecoms operator allegedly refused to deactivate unregistered mobile phone lines on its network.

For a country plagued by insecurity of lives and property on one hand, and high incidences of fraud on the other, it is little wonder that Nigerian Agencies seem adamant in their approach to biometric registration, approaching related policies with stone-faced determination and punishing defaulters by a measure almost akin to burning them at the stake.
However, it was not so  at the beginning. In 2001, Nigeria was at  the dawn of a digital revolution, and the focus was more on mobile phone penetration than on SIM registration. But when in 2008, security agencies approached the Commission to assist in resolving crimes perpetrated through the use of mobile phones , it became clear the need for biometric registration.
This shortfall led to a consultative forum involving various telecoms operators, consumer groups, security agencies, telecoms associations, dealers, the Nigerian Identity Management Commission, National Population Commission, National Census Commission, the media and a host of others who agreed that it was necessary to register phone users in the country.
RegisteredSIM cards
Although this commenced on March 28, 2011, and officially ended in January 2012, the fight was far from over. The issue of unregistered, pre-registered, and poorly registered SIM cards still remained an issue, prompting the NCC to give a 7-day ultimatum in August this year to deactivate all such lines or face the consequences.
The NCC had four major goals in mind: To assist security agencies in resolving crimes and by extension to enhance the security of the state; To facilitate the collation of data by the Commission about phone usage in Nigeria; To enable operators to have a predictable profile about the users in their networks and to enable the commission to effectively implement other value added services like Number Portability among others.
As soon as the deadline was over, the NCC swung into action, penalizing MTN Nigeria, Airtel Nigeria, Globacom Nigeria and Etisalat Nigeria for having pre-registered sim cards in their system. They were sanctioned and asked to variously pay a combined total of N120.4 million for failing to fully comply with the directive of the Commission to deactivate pre-registered and defective customer SIM cards.
While MTN, which controls over 62 million subscribers on its network, was asked to Pay N102.2 million; Globacom was slammed with N7.4 million; Etisalat N7 million and Airtel N3.8 million.
Before all these, Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta had spoken openly against the use of pre-registered sims, with a subtle warning of dire consequencies. Danbatta said, “We must speak to you about the issue of preregistered SIM cards. This is where criminally-minded people have utilised other peoples’ identities or fraudulent information to register and distribute SIM cards that are bought by innocent subscribers and criminally-minded ones for the purpose of committing fraud without being traced as the number they use do not bear their identities.
We request you to avoid buying or distributing preregistered SIM cards as this is a criminal act punishable by imprisonment. Anybody involved in the sale, distribution or use of preregistered SIM card is considered a threat to national security, and if caught, will face the ugly consequences.” Barely two months later, MTN now faces an even stricter punishment, and is expected to pay N200,000 for each of its 5.1 million subscribers that are not properly registered. According to Funso Aina, MTN’s PR and Protocol Manager, “MTN confirms that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has imposed a N1.4 trillion fine ($5.2bn) on MTN Nigeria.
This fine relates to the timing of the  disconnection of the 5.1 million MTNN  subscribers that were disconnected in August & September 2015 and is based on a N200,000 fine for each improperly registered subscriber.   MTN Nigeria is currently engaging with the NCC to resolve the matter.” In a similar fashion, a few days from now, the Central Bank’s deadline for all bank account owners to obtain Bank Verification number, BVN would elapse.
It is possible that millions of Nigerians may be unable to access their accounts; a steep price they would have to pay for failing to acquire their BVN. This is considering that the CBN, in September, had announced that about 32 million active bank account holders were yet to be captured in the BVN exercise.
The goal of the Bank Verification Number (BVN) is to uniquely verify the identity of each Bank’s customer for ‘know your customer’ (KYC) purposes. However, it helps to reduce fraud, increase the efficiency of banking operations and also enable customer access to future credit facilities. Now, like the SIM card registration, when the curtain draws  on BVN enrolment this Saturday, would the CBN toe the line of the NCC?