Telecommunications operators in Nigeria have blocked millions of lines from making and receiving calls in a last move to perfect the linking of subscribers’ National Identification Numbers (NIN) with all active SIMs.
This comes as the telcos race to meet the July 31, 2024 deadline set by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to bar all subscribers whose NINs have not been verified.
Despite the extension of the deadline from the initial April 15, 2024, to July 31, the latest actions by MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and 9mobile, indicate that many subscribers still have irregularities with their NIN-SIM link.
The telcos had before now disconnected millions of lines not linked with SIMs. The current phase being implemented requires the operators to verify all NINs submitted to ensure the owners’ details tally with their details on the SIM registration database.
While the figures of affected lines across the networks are yet to be released, Airtel in its quarterly results released on Friday disclosed that NINs of 4.9 million of its customers were yet to be verified.
Why many are still affected
An official of one of the mobile network operators, who spoke with Nairametrics under the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak, said many subscribers had ignored messages from the telcos about the need to correct the irregularities in their NIN and SIM data.
“We all received a directive from the NCC to bar all lines whose owners’ NIN has not been verified. As you are aware, the deadline is July 31, which is why some lines whose linked NINs have not been verified are being barred.
“All the affected subscribers on our network have received several messages informing them of the need to update their records. In most cases, you find out that the name on the NIN is not the same as the name used to register the SIM or there’s a photo mismatch or disparity in date of birth. Even though the subscriber had linked his or her line with NIN before, this requires the subscriber to update his or her records to perfect the linkage,” he said.
He, however, noted that owners of barred lines can still reactivate their lines by visiting their service provider to update their records.
Backstory
In December 2023, the NCC directed all telecommunications operators in to undertake full network barring of all SIMs that have failed to submit their National Identity Numbers (NIN) on or before 28 February 2024.
Likewise, customers that have submitted their NINs, but remain unverified were to be barred on 15 April 2024. This deadline was, however, shifted to July 31, 2024. Furthermore, guidelines were issued whereby no customer can have more than 4 active SIMs and all such excess SIMs must be barred by 29 March 2024.
This directive is part of the ongoing Federal Government NIN-SIM harmonization exercise requiring all subscribers to provide valid NIN information to update SIM registration records.
What you should know
The largest mobile network operator in Nigeria, MTN in March disclosed that it had disconnected 4.2 million lines from its network as of February 28 this year in line with the NCC’s directive.
The company said the lines disconnected were those for which the subscribers did not submit their NIN. According to the company, since December 2023 when NCC issued an industry-wide directive requiring full barring of subscriber lines not linked to their NIN, it had subjected a total of 19 million lines to verification. Out of these, it said 4.3 million have been verified and 4.2 million disconnected as of 28 February 2024.
In January, active subscriptions across the four mobile networks of MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and 9mobile had declined by over 6 million to 218 million as a result of the telcos barring SIMs not linked with NIN.