The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has ordered MTN, Glo, Airtel, 9mobile and other operators who barred some of their subscribers to reactivate the lines with immediate effect.
Over the weekend, many telecom subscribers/consumers were unable to access their phone lines.
However, the operators later ascribed the development to the inability of many telecom consumers to verify their National Identification Numbers (NINs) with their Subscriber Identification Modules (SIMs).
The compulsory linkage of NIN with SIM began in December 2020 when the government directed telecommunication companies to bar unregistered SIM cards and SIMs that were not linked to NIN.
Since December 2023, the Commission has since reviewed the deadline a few times; April 15, 2024 was set as the deadline for the full network barring of subscribers with four or fewer SIMs that had unverified NIN details.
The deadline was subsequently reviewed to July 31, 2024, to give consumers more time to ensure their submitted NIN details were properly verified.
Despite these extensions, many phone lines did not get linked with verified NINs.
In a statement on Monday, NCC said the objective of NIN-SIM linkage include enhancing of national security and ensuring the national SIM ownership database is accurate.
But NCC said consumers remain the priority, adding: “considering the challenges the blockages have caused, the Commission has directed all operators to reactivate all lines that were disconnected over the weekend in view of the short time available for consumers to undertake the verification of their NINs with their SIMs. Reactivated consumers are to note that this is for a limited period to allow them to properly link their NIN to their SIM.”
