MTN says it has yet to reactivate 86% of phone numbers that have requested reconnection, despite the fact that millions of owners have submitted their National Identity Numbers (NIN).
The lines were disabled on April 4 after the federal government ended a lengthy deadline to encourage users to link their lines to their government-issued ID numbers, a measure it says is necessary to combat insecurity.
MTN, which has the most subscribers in the country, said it disconnected 19 million lines in response to the government’s directive. Since then, 8.7 million people have sent in their NINs to be reconnected, but only 1.2 million have been reactivated as of April 25.
“As of April 25, 2022, approximately 8.7 million of those restricted had submitted their NINs.”
He blamed the delay on the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), which is in charge of NIN verification.
“As MTN Nigeria, we will continue to engage our affected subscribers while also providing hardware support to the National Identity Management Commission to speed up the verification of NINs submitted,” he said.
MTN stated that the mass disconnection has affected traffic patterns and is expected to reduce service revenue in the long run, though it has taken steps to mitigate the impact.
In 2021, the South African-based company reported N1.7 trillion in revenue. According to the company, 7.8 percent of that came from outgoing voice revenue from subscribers who have yet to be reactivated.
“In terms of how general traffic trends have evolved since the directive’s implementation, we have seen a drop in traffic as a result of our compliance with the directive,” Mr Toriola said.
“However, we are seeing a gradual recovery as affected subscribers are reconnected to resume voice calls.”
“We have deployed over 4,200 points of enrolment across the country to help drive NIN enrolment for subscribers who do not yet have a NIN.” In addition, we have provided multiple channels for our customers to submit their NIN for verification and linkage.”
Millions of people who submitted their NINs after their lines were disconnected in early April have yet to be reconnected across phone networks such as Airtel, Glo, and 9Mobile. The telephone companies, for example
