In a significant development affecting telecommunications in Nigeria, over 40 million Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) lines may have been disconnected by operators. This action follows the expiration of the February 28 deadline set for linking SIMs with National Identity Numbers (NINs).
Gbenga Adebayo, the chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), confirmed this on Sunday. He stated that telecom operators have adhered to the Nigerian Communications Commission’s (NCC) directive to disconnect lines not linked with NINs. Adebayo remarked, “I can also tell you that over 40 million lines have been blocked, and the affected customers are those who didn’t submit their NIN at all. Over 40 million is what is safe to say.”
This large-scale disconnection comes in the wake of the NCC’s December 2023 directive, which mandated all telecom operators to completely bar all SIMs not linked with submitted NINs. The first phase of these disconnections targeted SIMs without submitted NINs by February 28, 2024.
MTN Nigeria, in its financial statement, disclosed that it had disconnected about 4.2 million lines following the deadline. The statement noted, “We also had approximately 4.2 million lines disconnected for which the subscribers did not submit their NIN. Several of these lines were low-value subscribers, minimizing the revenue impact.”
The context of this situation is traced back to April 2022 when telcos initially implemented partial barring of lines as part of their compliance with the SIM-NIN rule. At that time, over 72.77 million active telecom lines were barred in a country with 197.77 million active lines. By December 2023, Nigeria had 224.21 million active telecom lines.
ALTON also indicated that more lines could face disconnection by the end of March 2024. The NCC’s directive from December requires telecom operators to bar lines whose NINs have been submitted but not verified by March 29, 2024, and to bar those with less than five lines linked to an unverified NIN by April 15, 2024. This move reflects the ongoing efforts to regulate and secure telecom operations in the country.
