The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has directed mobile network operators (MNOs) in the country to bar telephone lines without National Identity Numbers (NIN) and those without verified NINs from services on their networks.
The Telecommunications Operators in Nigeria under the umbrella body of the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) have announced that it would effective from February 28, 2024, disconnect Subscriber Identification Modules (SIMs) not connected to the National Identity Number.
The chairman of the association, Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, who gave this hint on Tuesday, said the directive to deactivate SIMs not linked to NIN was from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the industry regulator.
The industry expert explained that the latest directive implied that subscribers of Nigeria’s Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), including MTN, Airtel, and Globacom, whose SIMs had not been linked to their NINs would be deactivated.
The ALTON Chairman clarified: “The implication is that those who do not have their SIMs linked to the National Identity Number or whose lines have been linked but are yet to be verified need to do otherwise; otherwise, they will be disconnected.
“You know that it is a government directive; it is not our decision; if you read the press statement, the Nigerian Communication Commission directed that we should withdraw the service. We only have to abide by the regulatory directive. We are concerned about the directive because of the number of active subscribers on the networks, but we can only ask people to abide by it because it is a government directive.
“Following the directive of the NCC, which took effect on 4 April 2022, all MSISDNs for which the subscribers failed to submit their NINs were placed on outgoing call restriction only, and the affected subscribers were advised to verify their NINs before being reactivated.
“Despite the limited service restriction, millions of subscribers have yet to submit their NINs for verification. Consequently, the NCC issued this directive dated 15 December 2023 for telecommunications operators to commence full network barring of the affected MSISDNs on the effective dates ”, Adebayo added.
MTN Nigeria (MTNN), one of the MNOs, in a Notice to the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NGX), stated that as part of its efforts to support subscribers on the latest requirement, it was enhancing the capacity of its various service outlets to make the process smoother and more efficient.
It stated: “We are committed to ensuring that our subscribers comply with the NCC directive and will continue to work with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to accelerate the NIN verification process.
“We appreciate the effort being made by the Federal Government to implement a reliable and sustainable national identity management system, which is a crucial enabler for national and economic development.
“Therefore, as a law-abiding corporate citizen and in line with our operating licence requirements, we are committed to complying with the industry-wide directive from the NCC and will provide further updates to investors on progress and potential impact with the release of FY 2023 results”, the telco added.
It would be recalled that in December 2020, the Federal Government introduced the SIM-NIN Linkage policy to curtail insecurity and enshrine sanity in the telecoms sector.
The linking process involves validating the NIN with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and matching the subscriber’s NIN records with the SIM registration information (verification) to ensure proper subscriber identification.
