The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), in partnership with the Mobile Telephone Network (MTN) has announced that they will be offering free SIM cards with free airtime to evacuated returnees.
According to them, courtesy of the partnership, each returnee will get a free SIM card loaded with N5,000 airtime to allow them to reach their family members. The returnees will also get an additional N19,500 talk time and 1.5GB of data.
Recall MTN had given its subscribers 30 mins of free international calls and 50 free SMS to call Ukraine which will be valid till March 31, 2022.
What they are saying
In a statement by MTN, it noted that the free airtime will be offered to 5000 evacuated returnees displaced by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war as humanitarian aid to ease their premature return to the country.
- “1,199 have been evacuated so far from Ukraine,” NIDCOM announced in a Twitter post on March 11, 2022.
- “The Returnees are also getting a free SIM card loaded with 5,000 Naira airtime to allow them reach their family members courtesy of a partnership between NiDCOM and MTN, and 100 dollars transport fare from the Federal Government of Nigeria.
- “Returnees will be getting free MTN SIMs with an XtraTalk bundle worth N19,500 talk time and 1.5GB of data. This follows the company offering free international calls and SMS to all existing prepaid and post-paid customers on March 2, 2022,“ the statement continued.
Recall that MTN had announced free international calls and SMS to all existing prepaid and post-paid customers, which was aimed at supporting customers to stay in touch with their loved ones while eliminating associated IDD costs due to high ITR to Ukraine.