Telecoms Set Fresh Deadline to Disconnect SIMs Unlinked to NIN

Following a decision from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Nigerian telecommunications operators have set February 28, 2024, as the cutoff date for disconnecting SIMs (Subscriber Identity Modules) that are not associated with the National Identity Number (NIN).

The Association of Licenced Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) chairman, Gbenga Adebayo, officially confirmed this development on Tuesday.

Adebayo emphasised that the NCC, the regulating authority, made the decision to deactivate SIMs that were not connected to the NIN.

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This order affects SIMs that are linked but not yet validated or unlinked subscribers of major Nigerian mobile network operators, including MTN, Airtel, and Globacom.

“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.

“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 action comes after the federal government set several deadlines for the NIN-SIM linkage, which was adopted in December 2020 with the intention of improving security and guaranteeing orderliness in the telecom industry.

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The Nigerian Communications Commission stated in August 2023 that there were 220,715,961 million telecom users in the nation.

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