Why Some SIM Cards Connected To NIN in the Past Were Blocked — NCC

The National Communications Commission (NCC) of Nigeria gave an explanation on Monday for the blocking of some mobile lines for those who had previously connected their SIM cards to their National Identity Numbers (NINs).

A representative for the NCC, Reuben Muoka, stated that “people who probably didn't get a cleared or verified NIN” have been disqualified since “the earlier ones they submitted was not good.”

Speaking on Channels Television's The Morning Brief, Muoka said that discrepancies in names and other data, among other verification and identity problems, can arise with certain SIM cards.

“There are still some subscribers whose NINs are yet to be verified by NIMC and those have to also be corrected,” he said.

A lot of users have expressed dissatisfaction over having linked their NIN with their SIM cards in the past, but an NCC representative claimed that certain lines were blocked because the NIN's data did not match what the users had registered with their SIM cards.

According to him, in order to verify their NINS and address other issues, subscribers will need to go to their service provider's locations.

“For now, it requires those physical visits to the stations to get it verified and validated but in the future, we hope that this will be done virtually.” the NCC spokesman said.

Telecom service providers were instructed by the NCC last week to block users who haven't linked their phone numbers to their NIN by February 28, 2024, at the latest.

Nigeria has more than 224 million people as of December 2023, based on data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). With more than 87 million customers, MTN holds the largest market share of any licensed mobile network operator (MNO) in the nation at 38.79%. 9mobile has 13.9 million users, while Globacom and Airtel each have 61 million subscribers.

The regulator's spokesperson stated that the NCC has been going through deadlines one after the other since 2022 “to give extension for convenience but it is time to get to a closure.” Millions of lines were blocked last week when the deadline expired.