Sim registration: How Nigeria’s telecoms giant aided Boko Haram – Buhari opens up

– President Buhari said Nigeria’ telecoms tardiness in registering subscribers aided the Boko Haram insurgency

– MTN was fined by the NCC for failing to quickly obey an NCC directive on sim registration

– South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma said both countries were working to strengthen economic ties

President Muhammadu Buhari has blamed the failure of Nigeria’s telecommunication giant to comply with a Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) directive on registration of subscribers for aiding the Boko Haram insurgency.

Buhari said the telecom’s failure to comply with the directive and disconnect millions of unregistered subscribers enabled the insurgents to use the network and also enabled the terrorists in carrying out its attacks which led to the killing of thousands of Nigerians, Daily Trust reports.

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The president said this at a joint press briefing on Monday, Tuesday, March 9, at the presidential villa with the visiting South African President Jacob Zuma.

He said it was for that reason the telecom operator was fined $5.2 billion (N1. 4 trillion) by the NCC. The fine has been reduced to N780 billion.

“The concern of the federal government was basically on the security, and not the fine imposed on MTN. You know how the unregistered GSMs are being used by terrorists. And between 2009 and today, at least 10,000 Nigerians were killed by Boko Haram.

“That was why the NCC asked MTN, Glo and the rest of them to register GSM subscribers.

“Unfortunately, MTN was very, very slow and contributed to the casualties. And the NCC looked at its regulations and imposed the fine,” Buhari said.

According to him, MTN’s decision to go to court disarmed the government from getting involved in the matter.

In October 2015, the telecom giant MTN Nigeria was fined $5.2bn by the NCC for non-compliance with a deadline to disconnect all non-registered sim cards.

Meanwhile, at the press briefing with President Zuma, Buhari said that Nigeria has made moves to strengthen her relationship with South Africa by identifying agriculture and solid minerals as investment opportunities in Nigeria in order to create jobs and diversify the economy.

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In his remarks, President Zuma said: “We have a commitment to increase our economic activities. We discussed across all areas of the economy to grow the economy faster.”

He described Nigeria as South Africa’s key trading partner on the continent, noting that South African companies in Nigerian had risen from four in 1999 to over 120 now.

Zuma promised to ease the process of obtaining South African visas for Nigerians to boost economic activities and tourism.

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