On Monday, the Federal Government of Nigeria ordered telecom SIM lines not linked to the National Identification Number (NIN) barred from making outgoing calls. The decision has come on the heels of deadly terror attack in Kaduna, which resulted in the death of at least 10 people and multiple injuries.

In 2020, the Federal Government initiated the NIN-SIM linkage to curtail the use of mobile phones in execution of crimes by criminals. The idea is to have every telecom line linked to the national identity database, making it easy for security operatives to identify individuals linked to any phone number involved with crime.

Nigerians were mandated to register and link their phone numbers to their NIN to avoid being disconnected from telecom services. It has been about two years and 125 million SIMs linked since the NIN-SIM linkage initiative, which has impacted a huge loss on the telecom industry, kicked off, yet the security situation in Nigeria has deteriorated.

Consequently, the Federal Government has reasons to believe that about 70 million unlinked telecom subscribers could have a bearing on the worsening insecurity in Nigeria, as the relatives of many of those kidnapped in the train terror attack were contacted through mobile phones. Thus, it issued the directive to telcos to put a call restriction on phone lines yet to comply with the NIN-SIM linkage policy.

“Consequently, the Federal Government has directed all Telcos to strictly enforce the Policy on all SIMs issued (existing and new) in Nigeria. Outgoing calls will subsequently be barred for telephone lines that have not complied with the NIN-SIM linkage Policy from the 4th of April, 2022,

“Subscribers of such lines are hereby advised to link their SIMs to their NINs before the telcos can lift the restriction on their lines. Affected individuals are hereby advised to register for their NINs at designated centres and thereafter link the NINs to their SIMs through the channels provided by NIMC and the Telcos, including the NIMC mobile App,” the statement issued by the Nigerian Communication Commission reads.

The NIN-SIM linkage policy was met with heavy criticism in the beginning as the timeframe allotted by the government for the exercise was deemed unrealistic. However, the timeframe was repeatedly extended.

“… President (Muhammadu Buhari) graciously approved the many requests to extend deadlines for the NIN-SIM linkage. At this point, however, the government has determined that the NIN-SIM Policy implementation can proceed, as machinery has already been put in place to ensure compliance by citizens and legal residents. The implementation impacts on government’s strategic planning, particularly in the areas of security and socio-economic projections,” the statement added.

However, this new move by the Federal Government poses a fresh threat to the growth of the telecom industry. In June last year, the telecom industry came under the weight of the policy, losing 20.83 million subscribers that amounted to N29.58bn in revenue loss.

The telecom industry has served as Nigeria’s economy’s cash cow, largely sustaining the troubled economy during the covid-induced economic headwinds.

As of February 2022, Nigerian telecom subscribers amounted to a total 197,77 million, with MTN having the largest share of 74.93 million, Airtel 55 million, Globacom 55.99 million and 9mobile 12.84 million, according to data from the NCC. The figures denote a decline compared to the telcos’ customer-base pre-NIN-SIM linkage policy.

Thus, implementing the NIN-SIM linkage now will mean barring over 70 million subscribers. Although the NCC said that the average number of SIMs linked to one NIN is about three to four, the move poses a huge loss for both the Federal Government who will no longer collect its 7.5% VAT on calls and the telcos who will lose their revenue.

The Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) said the average revenue per user in Nigeria’s telecom market is N1,420. Using this figure, the loss is expected to hit over N70 billion.

Going through many quarterly reports this week. Let me commend our TradeGrid team for last quarter; exceptional operational execution in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector: ”Amidst one of the most challenging market conditions experienced by the industry in almost a decade, TradeGrid sustained an  exponential revenue growth – at a Quarter’s Average of 263% MoM – through superior inventory & supply chain management expertise.”

TradeGrid has also opened operations in Kenya. Next is South Africa and Kenya in this quarter.

TradeGrid is Africa’s largest oil & gas & new energy marketplace which connects suppliers and off-takers with financing to lift, trade, etc earth’s oil and gas assets. Our TradeGrid-Ninja trading platform, TradeGrid-P&E parts system, and TradeGrid Finance make us unique in the market.

Tekedia Capital was the first institutional investor in the Silicon Valley-based energy tech startup.

Ndubuisi Ekekwe

Member, Board of Directors,

TradeGrid

The “Women Entrepreneurship for Africa” (WE4A) Demo-Day will be the climax of three months long technical support, provided to 100 female entrepreneurs from Africa. The WE4A programme is supported by the European Union (EU), the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation Development (BMZ) and implemented by the E4D programme of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), SAFEEM and the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF).

Tekedia Institute is a knowledge partner and we’re providing scholarships to these women innovators to attend Tekedia Mini-MBA.

Join and celebrate our women innovators here.

Demo Day: 7 April 2022, 3 – 6:30pm CET

Late last month, Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed his intention to start a social media platform that will be free from censorship and propaganda. Musk suggested that Twitter, his platform of choice, does no longer promote free speech.

In the polls he conducted to get people’s view, majority of respondents agreed with him, even supporting his idea that Twitter algorithm should be made open source.

While many were expecting Musk to delve into the social media industry from the scratch, the news that he has taken the largest stake in Twitter – 9.2% at $3 billion, according to filings made to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday, broke, taking everyone by surprise.

The tech prodigy, who has more than 80 million followers on Twitter, apparently has a smarter plan to achieve his aim of making the microblogging app less censored. on Monday, after he has been established as the highest stakeholder in Twitter, Musk tweeted another poll asking his followers whether they would want an edit button.

Do you want an edit button?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2022

Minutes later, Parag Agrawal, the new Twitter CEO, quoted the poll, urging people to vote carefully as the consequence of the poll will be very important.

The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully. https://t.co/UDJIvznALB

— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) April 5, 2022

It all sounded like a new dawn on the social media platform. Whatever happens after this poll will likely pave way for further changes in Twitter policies in the near future. Twitter users for long, have been clamoring for an edit button, a clamor which fell on deaf ears of Twitter founder and former CEO, Jack Dorsey. Though Twitter tweeted on April 1 that “We are working on edit button,” Musk’s ability to make an edit button a topic that Agrawal is keenly following up on just hours after he’s announced as the highest stakeholder, suggests the amount of influence he will be wielding in the company and the changes he would bring about with it.

Agrawal announced on Tuesday afternoon that Musk has been appointed to Twitter: “I’m excited to share that we’re appointing @elonmusk to our board! Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board,” he tweeted.

He’s both a passionate believer and intense critic of the service which is exactly what we need on @Twitter, and in the boardroom, to make us stronger in the long-term. Welcome Elon!

— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) April 5, 2022

Musk responded to the tweet saying that he is “Looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!”

It is believed that Musk’s next line of action would be to ease as much as possible, the alleged censorship policies, which will see banned users like former US President Donald Trump, returning to Twitter. But that may not come easily. Twitter’s shares hierarchy has a list of important names whose opinions cannot be dismissed. Besides Musk with a 9.2% stake, there is Vanguard with 8.8%, Morgan Stanley 8.4%, Blackrock 6.5% among others.

Let me thank the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Nigeria for how it has worked with our team on our upcoming exchange startup.  The “FinTech & Innovation Team” within the SEC has been amazing, and I want to commend the DG and the entire SEC team.

In the last few weeks, you have committed a significant amount of time to guide Ugo Peters and the team, via emails, phone calls and Zoom. I thank you for that promising leadership. In short, I have told him to “move” some activities to SEC – and you people have been gracious to assist. We will get the latest phase ready.

Our vision is to build an EXCHANGE that will advance the nation, and I thank SEC for providing direction in all ways to make sure we have this product, fully regulated, and in full compliance, while allowing us to innovate, to serve the good Nigerian people and firms. I thank you for serving Nigeria!