Telecommunications Operators in Nigeria, acting on a directive from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), have declared February 28, 2024, as the deadline for disconnecting Subscriber Identification Modules (SIMs) that are not linked to the National Identity Number (NIN).
Gbenga Adebayo, the chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), confirmed this development exclusively on Tuesday.
Adebayo clarified that the decision to deactivate SIMs not linked to NIN emanated from the regulatory body, NCC.
This directive affects subscribers of major Mobile Network Operators in Nigeria, such as MTN, Airtel, and Globacom, whose SIMs are either unlinked or linked but yet to be verified.
“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.
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“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”, he disclosed.
The move follows multiple deadlines set by the federal government for the NIN-SIM linkage, introduced in December 2020, aimed at enhancing security measures and ensuring orderliness in the telecoms sector.
As of August 2023, the Nigerian Communications Commission reported a total of 220,715,961 million telecom subscribers in the country.