Subscribers of Nigeria’s four GSM service providers have besieged the various registration centres to avoid disconnection ahead tomorrow’s final deadline of the SIM registration exercise.

After series of postponements, industry regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), had announced June 30 as the last and final deadline for SIM registration, with a warning that subscribers whose SIM cards are not registered prior to the deadline would have their lines disconnected.

However, even some subscribers who had registered their SIM cards still went to the registrations centres to double-check following ceaselessly warning messages from their service providers.

At one of MTN’s registration centres along Akowonjo road in Lagos, a subscriber, Mr. Imafidon, told this reporter that though he had registered his SIM card before now but could not risk losing it since he kept getting repeated sms from his service provider to go and register his line.

He said: “Nigeria is such a funny country in that anything can happen. Even though I have since registered my SIM card I just have to join the crowd for this exercise again just to avoid ‘had I known.’ ”

MTN had requested subscribers verify their SIM status by sending REG to the short code 746. However, subscribers who spoke with News Express said before coming to the registration centres they had tried the short code repeatedly but without success.

One subscriber who identified herself as Mrs. Ayanwu said that she bought her SIM in 2004 and registered it in 2010, but was surprised to get an sms to go and register her line or lose it. She said she tried the 746 code but was not getting any response.

Another subscriber who gave her name as Bunmi said: “I got an sms from MTN Thursday night stating that my SIM card was not registered and that I should register it or risk disconnection. I even tried the 746 short code to confirm the SIM registration status I didn’t get any responds hence I decided to come here.”

•Photo shows NCC Executive Vice President, Dr. Eugene Juwah.

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