After the September 14 deadline expired, telecom providers and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) anticipate that mobile phone lines that are not associated with National Identity Numbers will begin to be disconnected.
The NCC disclosed in a statement earlier in August that as of September 15, no SIM card would be active without a validated NIN. The telecom regulator had advised customers to visit their service providers as soon as possible to amend their information before the deadline if they had not yet finished their NIN-SIM linkage or had encountered problems because of verification mismatches.
219 million active lines across mobile networks, including MTN, Glo, Airtel, and 9mobile, were reported by the NCC as of March 2024; 153 million of those phones were already connected to NIN. This puts about 66 million disconnected lines in danger of being disconnected.
Due to unverified NINs, millions of lines were briefly blocked between July 28 and 29, resulting in significant disruptions across the nation. Reversing its own ruling, the NCC gave subscribers additional time to comply. But now that the deadline has passed, disconnections will start.
NCC authorities state that there is no chance of an extension of the deadline they have set. Meanwhile, subscribers complained a few weeks ago about the difficulties they were having uploading their information to the National Identity Management Commission website.
After touring a few telecom centres, Adeolu Ogungbanjo, the President of the National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers, declared the state of affairs to be dire.
He added that the current portal issues are impeding the timely completion of the NIN-SIM linkage.
He further had this to say: “Without immediate action, subscribers will struggle to meet the deadline.”
He begged that the NCC take into account extending the deadline because of the technological problems that plagued the registration procedure last week.
Continuing, the NCC and NIMC tightened their collaboration in March to expedite the NIN-SIM connection procedure. To assist citizens in adhering to the directions, both authorities initiated stakeholder training, public awareness programs, and the transmission of factual information.
Financial data from the first half of 2024 shows that 13.5 million lines were blocked by MTN Nigeria and Airtel Africa for breaking the NIN-SIM linking directive. 8.6 million lines had been stopped, according to MTN, and 8.7 million subscribers of Airtel had finished the verification process.
Beginning in December 2020, when the government ordered telcos to ban unregistered SIMs and those without NIN linkages, SIM cards have to be linked to NINs, BrandSpur telecom and IT news desk reports.
However, April 15, 2024, was established as the ultimate date for fully prohibiting users with four or fewer SIMs containing unconfirmed NIN information, following several deadline extensions by the NCC since December 2023.
