It is commendable that the
government through some of its agencies decided to get basic information of the
most part of the citizenry through some of the most widely used services:
communication and banking. Thank God it wasn’t the States’ Water Corporation
that attempted to demand registration; at least we know the government can get
some things right. What is however not sure are some questions like: what is to
be done with this data? How is the data to be managed? How often should it be
updated? What legal issues arise from any mismanagement or error of same? Since
#change commenced we can ask questions and analyze issues in the light of the
letter and spirit of the law, principles and precedents in the name of “keeping
tabs with good governance”.
So let us talk about the SIM
Registration. To a large extent we can claim that it has been somewhat effective:
the registration process that is. We queued, gave our details and got relay
messages that said the registration was successful. Impressively, years later,
an application “True Caller” was developed using the data. It would track such
information and display the name of an unknown number calling, even with its
un-functionality sometimes (at least we can manage; we are Nigerians). We have
heard in recent times the way the communication service providers have been
subpoenaed to give evidence in court by printed records of conversations of
registered owners of lines. We have also read of the heavy fines imposed on the
pioneer communication service provider, which is currently rocking our boat of
FDI attraction (these are issues for another day). The Nigerian Communication
Commission had published some of the reasons for the registration. With the key
one being security, it works a great deal in a very little way against the fight on terrorism in the country. Since my registration till now, I have changed address twice. Yet I have not updated with my service provider. Before you judge me as being the major problem of the country as we are quick to doing, we should also not forget that we are a lot to be judged. Without justifying my irresponsibility, I recommend that service providers should do periodic checks on their subscribers to ensure information is up to date instead of raining our phones, running down our batteries and a lot of times distracting our attention with those 5-digit messages and 6 digit line calls to advertise one new product or the other that we are really not interested in.
Most importantly, there should
be more awareness as to the utilization of this data, verification of same and
connection with other amenities subscribed for by such an individual. I should
be able to link my electricity distribution account, or television service with
my line and also my water corporation subscription. This way, it would be worth
it, doing a police report for an “ordinary” SIM Card that gets missing.
On BVN Registration; it was a
sordid experience for so many who had their accounts restricted for having not done
the BVN registration or even having done same, had complications. The
frustrating part for some is the fact that some of the issues cannot even be
resolved by the banks they registered with, because the Central Bank has not
given directives on those issues, so they claim. Now let us assess this
situation properly. According to basic banking law, one of the undeniable
duties of the banker in the banker – customer relationship is the duty to
provide the customer his money which he deposited with the banker, whenever he
demands for the money provided that such time is within banking hours. Put
succinctly the duty to honor customers’ cheque(s). The restriction placed on
accounts not duly registered is as to withdrawal, while moneys can still be
deposited into the account. The danger is thus for an ignorant customer who
hardly withdraws cash and needs cash urgently only to be told his account is
restricted, meanwhile he receives text messages regularly on the amounts lodged
in. upon demand and subsequent denial, an action may arise. Due diligence on
the part of the bank is to ensure that measures are in place to allow and
compel the customer to comply with industry regulations. Of course the
peculiarity of the Nigerian situation would demand more. If the accounts were
restricted from even depositing, it would create a better scenario for the bank
to avoid liability. Maybe we can float a class action for breach of
banker-customer duty on the banks on this basic principle; at least let us here
what the defense would be. If the CBN claims that over 5 million accounts were
blocked in a country that claims to have more under-banked population then the
effectiveness of the more than one year BVN campaign runs into questioning.
Regardless however, the average Nigerian citizen is skeptical about giving
information that he is not sure of its security especially with the realities
of wikileaks, Boko Haram and Identity theft in our world. 
Since the Obasanjo regime,
there have been moves, approved budgetary allocations towards the issuance of
national identity cards. The National Identity Management Commission got my
data since August 2014 and promised to send me a message once my card is ready,
and here I am still presenting my University ID Card when I have to cash a
cheque. The innovative Lagos state under the leadership of Governor BRF
introduced the LASRRA (Lagos State Residents’ Registration Agency. I doubt
Lagosians know about this registration.
Whether effective or not
effective, we need to know how this data is managed. We need an automated
process of registration. Clusters are no longer encouraged in the country with
such incidences as the Ebola break out, riots, and other dangerous attacks we
are prone to in recent times. ID Cards should be issued with a sensible
collection process, not one I have to bribe my way to collect; the already
gathered data should be wide spread across agencies and service providers. I
should have an identity number that I can provide when booking an online
flight, registering a business name, or even applying for admission to a
university, that would allow access to my full data as last updated by me. That
way, services are faster, customer satisfaction is easier and everyone is happy
to have registered. Internet hacking is not new in the world, the agencies in
charge should guard properly the information and bear liability in the event of
a negligent leak.
