For subscribers of Airtel telecommunications firm, this is not a pleasant period. The network recently called on its subscribers to go for another round of Know Your Customer (KYC) exercise, a subtle way of forcing users to re-register their Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards.
Having undertaken the KYC about three years ago, on the auspices of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and with SIM registration still very much on for new subscribers, customers are wondering what this new directive is all about.
Airtel is the third largest operator in Nigeria, with 44.9 million subscribers and 25.9 per cent market share as at February 2019.
Curiously, Airtel, owned by India’s telecoms billionaire, Sunil Bharti Mittal, after paying about $10.7billion nine years ago for acquisition of Zain Africa, including the operations in Nigeria, has since last month been sending text messages to its subscribers in the country to go and update their KYC or risk being barred from the network.