On Sunday, MTN Nigeria, the largest telecommunications provider in the country, began blocking the lines of thousands of subscribers who had not linked their National Identification Number (NIN) to their SIM cards. This action comes three days ahead of the July 31, 2024 deadline set by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
MTN initiated the blocking process in December 2023, according to sources familiar with the situation. Despite these measures, some users reported that their lines were blocked on Sunday, even after they had submitted their NINs.
“I submitted my NIN twice, yet my SIM was blocked without prior warning. I’ve been using this number for over ten years. How do I proceed now?” one affected user told TechCabal. A source suggested that issues such as incomplete NIN registration or discrepancies between the NIN and SIM registration details could be causing these problems.
An MTN customer explained, “The name on the SIM registration doesn’t match the one on the NIN, so I need to update it.” This customer also noted that MTN had sent several notifications prior to the disconnection.
MTN’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
This disconnection is part of broader regulatory efforts to enforce the NIN linkage policy initiated in December 2020. In February 2024, the NCC instructed telcos to block subscribers who failed to link their NINs by February 28, 2024. The deadline was subsequently extended to April 15, 2024, and later to July 31, 2024.
Gbenga Adebayo, President of the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), dismissed suggestions that the SIM bans were connected to any call for protests. He clarified that the telcos were not intentionally blocking lines. “If there’s an issue, it’s likely due to mismatches in NIN-SIM registration, and customers have been notified by operators to update their details. It’s coincidental that this is happening now,” Adebayo stated.
In March 2024, MTN Nigeria CEO Karl Toriola reported that the company had barred 8.6 million subscribers to comply with the NCC directive, resulting in a net reduction of 2 million subscribers in Q1 2024 after some lines were reactivated. “We have 8.9 million subscribers currently undergoing the verification process, most of whom have fewer than five SIMs linked to an unverified NIN,” Toriola mentioned.
In December 2023, the NCC had directed all telecom operators to fully block any SIMs not linked to a NIN by February 28, 2024. Customers who submitted their NINs but were still unverified were given until April 15, 2024, with the final deadline extended to July 31, 2024. Additionally, the NCC issued guidelines limiting customers to no more than four active SIMs, with any excess SIMs required to be deactivated by March 29, 2024.
This directive is part of the ongoing Federal Government’s NIN-SIM harmonization exercise, which mandates that all subscribers provide valid NIN information to update their SIM registration records.
Credit: TechCabal (Text Excluding Headline)
