Companies in the Nigerian telecom industry claim to have severed ties with more than 40 million customers due to their failure to provide NINs in compliance with the country’s Subscribers Identification Module and NIN linkage policy.
This was revealed in a statement made on Sunday by Gbenga Adebayo, the Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria.
From the 12 million lines that were originally intended to be deactivated by telcos, this signifies a spike of 28 million.
According to Adebayo, the second group of subscribers who would be disconnected are those who have submitted their NIN but whose mobile subscription identification numbers have more than five and have not been confirmed.
Customers who failed to provide their NINs will be among the 40 million lines that have been blocked, as far as I am aware. Operators have not received NINs from some individuals.
Neither they nor their SIMs have been registered with the harmonisation programme. They were the ones who were blocked since they haven’t shown the NIN number to their operators. Therefore, why, after so many warnings, is the number still so concerning? It reveals that a large number of individuals are still chatting without registering.
The second group that will be disconnected is those whose NINs have been confirmed but who have more than five unverified mobile subscription IDs linked to their NIN.
The reason behind this is that some people’s names are arranged differently, and some have different birthdays. The details given to the operator during SIM registration varied from those given to NIMC while NIN was being processed. When it comes to other crucial records for their verification process, some subscribers also have discrepancies.
Customers whose NINs contain more than five MSINs that have not been confirmed will have their service disconnected as of March 30, 2024.
Therefore, by the month’s end, we might see more disconnections. By March 30, we will disconnect those users whose names have not been validated, and the numbers will rise even more, if they have not responded to our SMS messages requesting verification.
Keep in mind that following regulatory directions from the Nigerian Communications Commission after the deadline of February 28, Adebayo had previously informed DAILY POST last week about plans to ban SIMs not tied to NIN.
The NCC issued regulatory directions to telecom carriers last week, limiting the number of SIMs that do not have NIN connectivity.
This new information follows multiple postponements of deadlines that have occurred since Isa Pantami, the former minister of communications and digital economy, initiated the strategy in 2020.