How do you create a new basis of competition through superior customer experiences? How do you move those customers into a world of fandom where they become fans, not just customers? How do you protect the castle by elevating the imaginations of your customers, by taking them from their needs, beyond expectations to perceptions? Great moats come when firms deliver exceptional customer experiences.

Interestingly, getting into that deep nexus of great customer relationships cannot come through guesswork. You need to understand your market. You need to know the customer. And you need to connect the dots. Like my Physics teacher while introducing Physics in secondary school explained, in natural philosophy, mathematics – the beautiful science of numbers – is fundamental to connect the dots in physics, biology and chemistry. And Pythagoras described the world as nothing but Numbers!  Make sense of the numbers, understand your customers, deliver great value using the insights, and rule your market.

Join me at MTN Business Masterclass on 23rd Sept at 10am WAT for an excursion into the mechanics of markets, customer relationships and getting to that mountaintop of successful ventures. Register Free here – https://www.mtnbusiness.com.ng/revvprogramme

You can download the form here – a copy of the self-certification form (pdf). As you can see, the government is not deceiving anyone. This is just a pure class of communication mistake. The form is clearly written “non-resident” which means it does not apply to Nigerians. They sent a copy to us to assuage Nigerians who are already running to withdraw money from their bank accounts. Please this is under control – government is not coming after your deposit. Hope we learn from this as a nation. If this is not well managed, some banks could have issues. Share with others.

For the background news on the form, read here.

On Thursday, Nigerian government, through its social media pages, ordered Nigerians to obtain and fill Self-Certification forms in their respective financial institutions.

The order said the forms are required by relevant financial institutions to carry out income tax regulations.

“This is to notify the general public that all account holders in Financial Institutions (Banks, Insurance Companies, etc) are required to obtain, complete and submit Self-Certification Forms to their respective Financial Institutions

Update: Who is a Non-Resident in Nigeria?

From my understanding, Non-Residents should be seen as Non-Nigerians who have financial relationships in other countries. It would have meant anyone not living full time in Nigeria as they have in the U.S. and other advanced nations but the problem here is that Nigeria does not have data to know that a Nigerian who lives in New York but visiting and operating an account in First Bank Plc  with his Nigerian PASSPORT is non-resident. 

The bank will assume the person is a resident citizen. And because most diasporas open these accounts with their Nigerian passports, Nigeria and our banks cannot figure this out. So, at the end, the non-residents will APPLY MAINLY to others with non-Nigerian passports. Sure, there are Nigerians who run diaspora bank accounts. I do not think that is the target here since the government expects the affected people to go to their banks to complete the forms. Possibly, they would be verified with BVN. You will not expect someone to leave London to travel to Lagos to do that!

There are no self-certification requirements coming to Nigerians for their bank accounts. The government has clarified that the tweets were mistakes. Going through their updated note, it is evident that running governments from Twitter may not be optimal. Those days, a press release would have been prepared with all details included. But these days, from Nigeria to U.S. to UK, governments are confusing citizens as they try to fit the unfittable into few characters. Here is a copy of the form (pdf).

“We apologize for the misleading tweets (now deleted) that went up yesterday, regarding the completion of self-certification forms by Reportable Persons,” the tweet reads.

“The message contained in the @firsNigeria Notice does not apply to everybody. FIRS will issue appropriate clarification shortly.

Earlier on Friday, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) clarified that the directive is not for all bank customers.

“This is to clarify that the publication for financial institutions account holders in Nigeria to complete the self-certification form, pursuant to the Income Tax (Common Reporting Standard) Regulations 2019 which is for the fulfilment of Automatic Exchange of Information Requirements,” the FIRS said.

“The Self-Certification form is basically to be administered on Reportable persons holding accounts in Financial institutions that are regarded as “Reportable Financial Institutions” under the CRS (Common Reporting Standard).

“Reportable persons are often non-residents and other persons who have residence for tax purposes in more than one jurisdiction or Country. Financial Institutions are expected to administer the Self Certification form on such account holders when information at its disposal indicates that the Account holder is a person resident for tax purpose in more than one jurisdiction.”

Nigeria Looks for New Sources of Funds – Goes for Bank Deposits

Regulations matter and they are very impactful. There was a time when if you have an Amazon or Walmart gift card, it would expire in your digital or physical purse. It was pure statistics: sell $1 million worth of gift cards, be assured that only 70% would be used before they expire. Yes, $300k on the right side of the balance sheet. So, with that, gift cards mushroomed in America with some brands offering even 60 day cards before they expire. 

Then the hammer came from the U.S. Government: if these cards which people had paid with U.S. dollars expire and they are unable to use them, we require the “expired” money be sent to the US Treasury. Magically, within 24 hours, most of the cards removed expiration dates.

That takes me to the news that Nigeria will now rollover unused data for data subscribers: “Unused data by telecom subscribers must be rolled over in subsequent subscriptions, the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) has said”. Largely, we reason this way: I have paid for it and now it is my  property, and should not necessarily expire.

Unused data by telecom subscribers must be rolled over in subsequent subscriptions, the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) has said.

This was disclosed in a statement signed by the agency’s spokesperson, Ikechukwu Adinde, on Thursday.

The statement said the agency reached the conclusion at the regular bi-annual meeting with senior executives of telecommunication companies on complaints management.

[…]

“In other words, a subscriber’s unused data must be rolled over to his/her subsequent data subscription. Therefore, the commission urges service providers to continue to inform and educate subscribers on the procedures and processes for data rollover,” it added.

This is a good move. But expect your data costs to go high as I have noted.

Yes, This is the business logic – by making  data bundles expirable, it becomes cheaper for all, since most will never use the fully paid products before they expire! Airlines do the same; by making tickets nonrefundable, ticket prices drop since not many will use all sold tickets, freeing seats for last deal sales. The fact is this: if tickets are refundable, the prices rise!

Yes, airlines will book “seat commitments” on the tickets knowing that the seats could be lost before the planes take off. By raising the price, they cover losses from the cancellations. In other words, if there are ten sold tickets with probability that 2 may cancel, they would ensure that the eight remaining passengers will cover the costs for the ten seats.

But where ticket is nonrefundable, they can make the prices for the ten seats to be low knowing there are no surprises ahead since once a seat is purchased, the revenue is guaranteed.

My point is this: if you make data non-expirable, you will end up forcing telcos to increase the bundle price (or reduce the value at the current price). That may not be a better outcome.

Statistics…but NCC, the telecom regulator, is right here since this is not a monopoly market. Yes, the telcos do not have so much power to increase prices without losing customers. Good call.

The Expiration of Data Bundles in Nigeria