NCC orders MTN, Glo, Others To Block SIMs Without NIN
NCC directs Telcos to block lines without NINs and plans to ban over 40 million dormant mobile numbers.
Starting on February 28, 2024, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) will prohibit more than 42 million dormant mobile numbers, according to reports.
There are reports that 45 million lines nationwide will lose service if their subscriber identity module (SIM) is not linked to their national identification numbers (NINs).
42 million of the 45 million lines have not sent an SMS, made a call, or participated in a data session in more than a year. To combat the nationwide trend of increasing insecurity and kidnapping, the federal government announced in December 2020 the policy of integrating SIM cards into the NIN database.
The federal government ordered telecommunications companies to block only outgoing calls on all unlinked lines on April 4, 2022, in response to several deadline extensions brought on by pressure from Nigerians and a sizable number of unlinked SIMs.
According to reports, the NCC has now made the decision to step it up a notch by putting the policy into effect on a large scale for the first time since it was unveiled in 2020. Despite telecom operators' appeals that a significant number of lines still haven't been linked to their NINs, the commission upheld the federal government's directive to prohibit unlinked lines by February 28, 2024, in a letter sent to them in December 2023.
When the policy is fully implemented, all incoming and outgoing voice calls, data, and SMS will be blocked. Out of the 45 million lines that will be blocked, only 3 million active lines are expected to be impacted.
“These 42 million lines have been inactive for over a year. So essentially, from our system checks only about 3 million active lines would be barred. We expect that the users of these lines would come out to submit their NIN and unbar their lines or abandon the lines entirely,” according to report.
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