By Uche Mbah
Airtel Africa Plc says it will request more time to link the National Identity Number, NIN, with the phone numbers of subscribers.
Nigeria asked telecom operators to link up their subscribers national identity number, NIN, with their phone numbers, putting the deadline for February 19.
Airtel Chief Executive Officer, Raghunath Mandava reportedly said the company has collected more than half of its subscribers to beat the deadline for linking, noting that the Nigerian unit “is working” to verify customers’ data.
“This could require a little bit more time and we will not be able to complete the full exercise, in which case, after all, efforts if we don’t manage by Feb. 9 then we will, I am sure discuss with the government and request for some extension,” he said in a regulatory filing with the Nigeria stock exchange Friday.
According to him, Nigeria’s operations’ revenue grew by 21.6% in the three quarters ending December 31, 2020. east Africa grew by 23.4%.
The consumer base of the company rose 11% to 118.9 million in the third quarter of 2020, with a remarkably increased penetration. it added 2.5 million customers in the three months to December 31, 2020.
“Our nine-month performance reflects both the resilience of our business model through the Covid-19 pandemic and, for the last six months, a continued improvement in our execution and performance as lockdown restrictions have eased
across our countries of operation.
“I am particularly pleased with our performance in the latest third quarter, which has demonstrated accelerated growth
in both revenue and underlying EBITDA in constant currency to 22.8 percent and 28.3 percent respectively.
“The opportunities for sustainable profitable growth from our underpenetrated markets for both mobile and mobile money services remain hugely attractive, and we are confident of continuing to deliver on our growth strategy,” Mandava said.
Meanwhile, Airtel Nigeria has designated eight different centers for the National Identity Number registration to augment the registrations at the office of the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC.
Aitel has been selected as one of the companies allowed to register for NIN outside the NIMC.
The NIMC has been inundated by Nigerians struggling to beat the deadline for the registration, which has been shifted to February 19. The government has been criticized by Nigerians for putting the lives of Nigerians in danger due to exposure to the COVID19 pandemic. Social distancing and wearing of masks are hardly observed at these stations that witness daily crowds estimated in their thousands.
